37. Are there any concrete measures to increase the proportion of women in the ranks of senior
officers in the armed forces, including temporary special measures?
Issue 9: Gender Discrimination in the Labor Market, Including the Gender Wage Gap
Current Status
38. The gender wage gap in the Korean labor market ranked top among the OECD countries
since 1992 when the OECD began compiling statistics. In a MOGEF survey, the gender
wage gap in listed corporations was 38.1 percent in 2021, and in public institutions, 26.3
percent. Such gaps result from various reasons: women are largely employed by small and
medium-sized businesses, which only pay 54.5 percent of the amount paid to employees
of large corporations; and the female-dominant industries pay 16.3 percent less than
mixed-gender industries and 24.3 percent less than male-dominant industries. This can be
explained as a result of structural gender discrimination, including women’s career
interruptions due to a lack of public childcare services.
39. Irregular workers in the Korean labor market experience unfair treatment more often than
regular workers, and more so for female employees than the males. According to the
Economically Active Population Survey for Additional Investigation by Employment Type,
the proportion of irregular female workers among all female wage workers was 47.4
percent in 2021, while the proportion of irregular male workers among all male wage
workers was 31.0 percent. Furthermore, the average monthly wage of irregular female
employees is only 63.5% of their male counterparts (as of 2020).
Question
40. What are the measures the government envisages to reduce the extremely high gender wage
gap women face in the labor market, in particular to reduce the high proportion of irregular
women workers and to increase their low wages? Also, please provide information on ways
to assist women workers to stay in the labor market without career interruptions.
Issue 10: Absence of Measures to Eradicate Discrimination Against Sexual Minority
Women
Current Status
41. On March 16, 2022, the NHRCK presented its recommendations to the Prime Minister,
the Minister of Health and Welfare, the Minister of the Interior and Safety, the Minister of
Gender Equality and Family, and the Commissioner of Statistics Korea on the issue of
sexual minorities, including their identification in the National Statistics Surveys and other
factfinding researches, and the removal of the term transsexualism from the Classification
of Mental Disorders from the “Korean Standard Classification of Diseases”.
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