Ministry of Labor's 'Monitoring Gender Discrimination in Recruitment and Hiring'
Warning Issued for Using 'Jubang Imo' Expression and Hiring Only Specific Genders
"Height over 172 cm, good-looking (male)"
"Packaging work (male 110,000 KRW, female 97,000 KRW)"
"Hiring kitchen auntie"
On the 1st, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of the '2022 Monitoring and Measures on Gender Discrimination in Recruitment and Hiring.' The Ministry monitored 14,000 job advertisements posted on major job portals last September and found 924 cases containing gender-discriminatory expressions in recruitment phrases.
Among these were cases offering hiring opportunities only to a specific gender, such as "male employees wanted" or "female recruitment," and expressions favoring a particular gender, such as "female preference" or "male preference."
There were also cases requiring physical conditions unnecessary for job performance, such as "good-looking males over 172 cm tall," and wage discrimination based on gender, such as "labeling and packaging work (male 110,000 KRW, female 97,000 KRW)."
Based on monitoring results from October to November last year, the Ministry investigated 924 companies suspected of violating the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation and found violations in 811 companies.
The Ministry filed charges against one company that continued to post gender-discriminatory job advertisements despite receiving a written warning in 2020 for violating the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation. The remaining 810 companies were either given written warnings or instructed to correct violations if recruitment was ongoing.
According to the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation, employers must not discriminate between men and women when hiring workers or require physical conditions such as appearance, height, or weight that are unnecessary for job performance. It also mandates equal pay for work of equal value within the same workplace. Violations can result in fines of up to 5 million KRW.
Meanwhile, to address gender discrimination issues occurring at the recruitment and hiring stages, the Ministry plans to increase the number of monitoring sessions from once to twice a year and expand the monitoring target from 14,000 to 20,000 cases starting this year.
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