The Shadow of Reducing Gender Wage Gap... "Because Women in Their 30s Delayed Marriage and Childbirth"

Urgent Need for Policy Intervention to Resolve Career Discontinuity

A study has found that the easing of the gender wage gap is due to women in their 30s who have postponed marriage and childbirth out of concern for career interruptions.

On the 28th, Professor Moon Ji-seon of the Korea Employment and Labor Education Institute and Researcher Kim Nam-joo of the Korean Women's Development Institute stated in "Citizens and the World," published by the People's Solidarity Participation Society Research Institute, that “the average wages of women increased as women in their 30s, who are likely to become high-wage workers, postponed marriage and childbirth to avoid career interruptions, thereby suppressing the gender wage gap.”

The research team analyzed the 'Regional Employment Survey' by Statistics Korea from 2017 to 2022 and found that the real wage gap between men and women was 45.4% in 2017. It was 38.0% in 2018, 36.3% in 2019, 31.4% in 2020, 35.0% in 2021, and 34.3% in 2022. The number of female wage workers in their 30s increased by 1.0% in 2018 and 1.7% in 2019, then decreased by 7.2% in 2020. It increased again by 2.2% and 1.4% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

The research team emphasized, "Policy interventions to resolve career interruptions for married women in their 30s, who are barely defending against structural gender discrimination in the wage market to prevent worsening gender inequality, are urgently needed," adding, "Efforts are required to eliminate persistent gender-discriminatory wage compensation, practices, and evaluations in the labor market."