7. [Comment] Upon follow-up complementary measure for Government part-time job vitalization

- Wage would be the best solution for problem of discontinuance of career

 

 Government, today, pronounced [part-time job vitalization follow-up complementary measure]. However this measure is just measure threatening whole women’s job by making employment insecure. The measure that expands social security coverage to women workers who work for plural part-time job is the same as a policy that exposes women workers to danger of death from overwork by encouraging women who are able to do stable work at a work place to work multiple part-time jobs. Vitalization of part-time job is just the same as cutting down women’s total wage. If truly wanted to discuss part-time job policy, applying entirely labor related laws to worker with less than 15 working hour would be the first step.

 

 Choi KyeongHwan, the deputy Prime Minister, at the visit to Washington to attend to an annual general meeting of IMF and World Bank on 11th (local time), said “without an increase in wage, the economy won’t be revived” while meeting with press and reporters, and “as uncontrollable cost like communication cast and housing cost is of great importance, disposable income that household actually can put to use is the very least. In this situation, the economy can’t be revived”.

 

 It is not only related to issue of economy vitalization but deeply related to economic activity rates of women. The key point of work-life balance policy is not about working hour policy but income policy. As everyone knows, gender wage gap in Korea is 37.4% as of 2012, which has been ranking the first among OECD members for 13 years. Average wage of male is 2,500,000 won while the one of female is 1,500,000 won. This is the point that career discontinuance of women occurs. If women have to work with 1,500,000 won as monthly payment which is almost the same as minimum wage, they can’t help giving up their jobs. It is because that level of wage causes deficit in terms of living cost and results in sense of exhaustion, therefore women judge that holding that kind of job is no practical use. At this situation, pushing career-disrupted women to part-time job being paid low wage is driving them out to the other brink from a brink.

 

 Also, labor income share is decreasing day by day and income of top 1% has being growing geometrically. Attention to inequality increases and Piketty syndrome is boiling up all over the world. At the center of this problem, wage concern of women exists in Korea.

 

 Choi KyeongWhan, the deputy Prime Minister, said “it tends to be thought that an increase in ordinary wage brings about difficulties in enterprise environment, but current economic situation is not like that. An increase in wage revives economy”. We have to pay attention to women’s wage. Wage of women holds core key for economic vitalization, solution of career discontinuance, economic activity rates of women.

 

 The policy that government should enact is not expansion of part-time job, but alleviation of gender wage gap and an increase in disposable income. For that, a priority should be given to a policy that reduces substantially women non-standard workers and increase minimum wage sharply as USA and UK implemented. Also, labor income share should be raised. Retention money that enterprise has accumulated should be distributed to workers. Government completely knows the cause of the problem. We hope that government doesn’t continue to make mistake, any more, that repeats to adopt a stopgap measure (‘scratch a leg of an elephant”), ignoring what they already knows.

October 15, 2014

Korea Women Workers Association / Korea Women’s Trade Union