[K Population Strategy] "Encouraging Companies to Support Work-Family Balance and Propose Solutions"

Experts Praise Our Gender Equality Index
Joo Hyung-hwan, Vice Chairman; Lee In-sil, Director of Hanmiyeon; Hong Seok-cheol, Seoul National University Professor, etc.
Room for Improvement Including Industry-Specific Characteristics

"I want to give a positive evaluation in terms of stimulating companies to actively implement work-family balance and presenting concrete implementation plans."

This is the response from companies and experts to the year-round project "K Population Strategy - Gender Equality is the Answer" published by this paper. Specifically, it refers to the responses to the Gender Equality Index league table calculated for the top 100 companies by sales and the top 36 financial institutions including banks, securities, insurance, and card companies, as well as the feature articles exploring exemplary companies practicing work-family balance introduced as benchmarking cases.

Most responses from lower-ranked companies were complaints such as "Why are we at the bottom?" or "What is the basis for the calculation?" There were also opinions that "Since there are industry-specific characteristics, ranking by grouping the top 100 companies does not allow for accurate comparison." The need to consider industry-specific characteristics was also pointed out by experts such as Professor Hong Seok-cheol of Seoul National University’s Department of Economics and Lee In-sil, Director of the Korean Peninsula Future Population Research Institute. Plans to reflect these views will be reviewed in future index updates.

There were also encouraging responses consistent with the project’s purpose of stimulating companies and encouraging improvements. KB Insurance, which received a lower ranking, explained that "we received low scores in terms of salary levels as we employ call center staff as regular employees," showing a proactive attitude by asking how to receive better scores and what areas need improvement.

In particular, KB Financial Group showed group-level interest by checking the rankings of each affiliate from the holding company, and LG Group also self-assessed that "affiliates such as LG Household & Health Care and LG Uplus seem to have received good scores in terms of internal and external directors," stating that "we will continue the policy of securing female diversity at the C-level going forward."

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the main government agency responsible for work-family balance, has shown great interest since the beginning of the year-round project. It is said that this time, in preparation for questions in the next National Assembly, they are creating data on the status of female executives in companies and gender wage gaps, heavily citing articles from this paper.

Experts and businesspeople praised the project while also presenting candid suggestions for improvement.

Joo Hyung-hwan, Vice Chairman of the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee, said, "It is good content that allows us to understand the actual conditions of companies and the financial sector well," adding, "I have advised the practitioners to refer to it."

Director Lee In-sil said, "Since there are differences by industry, scoring by uniform standards has limitations," but evaluated that "showing the growth rate (variation) is meaningful." She also advised, "In the future, it would be good to proceed with a certification method reflecting the opinions of an advisory committee composed of experts."

Professor Hong Seok-cheol also said, "Calculating and comparing the Gender Equality Index is a beneficial attempt to spread a culture of gender equality in companies," but pointed out, "However, comparing salaries using publicly disclosed data can be controversial. Even within the same financial company, wages vary depending on education level, job type, and years of service, so simple comparisons without controlling for these factors are inappropriate."

Lee Ju-ho, CEO of Gounsesang Cosmetic, introduced as a model case, also evaluated, "Since the female ratio varies depending on industry characteristics, using supplementary indicators that reflect those characteristics more would result in a more sophisticated analysis." He added advice that "If you look at the total number of employees, middle managers, and executives separately, you can closely observe the trend of decreasing women as you go higher."

This paper will continue to upgrade the Gender Equality Index by reflecting voices from the field and advice from experts.

Special Reporting Team