[K Population Strategy] Prestigious Social Contributor Yuhan Yanghaeng... Room for Improvement in 'Employment Gender Equality'

Reputation for Social Contribution and Employee Welfare Following Entrepreneurial Spirit
But Only Mid-Level in Gender Equality
Only 25.3% Female Regular Employees
Increased Support Including '10 Million Won' Childbirth Subsidy

Yuhan Corporation is recognized as a pharmaceutical company that has actively engaged in social contribution projects in accordance with the management philosophy of its founder, Dr. Yu Ilhan, which emphasizes 'returning corporate profits to society.' The company is also well-known for its significant attention to employee welfare, being the first in Korea to implement an employee stock ownership plan and establish welfare facilities for its employees.

Yuhan Corporation Headquarters Building Exterior
[Photo by Yuhan Corporation]

Last year, Yuhan Corporation's separate annual sales amounted to 1.8091 trillion KRW, which did not place it among the top 100 companies by sales in this survey. However, considering its symbolic significance, it was included in this project through additional investigation. Nonetheless, Yuhan Corporation's score related to gender equality was 23.25 points, ranking only around 48th compared to the top 100 companies, leaving some disappointment. The total score of 23.25 was calculated by combining scores for regular employees (3 points), average years of service (7.25 points), salary (7 points), inside directors (0 points), outside directors (5 points), and family-friendly certification (1 point).

The area where Yuhan Corporation received particularly low scores compared to other companies was the 'number of regular employees' category. As of the end of last year, out of 1,948 regular employees at Yuhan Corporation, only 492 were women, accounting for just 25.3%, resulting in a score of only 3 out of 20 points in this category. Although this is an increase from 23.3% in 2019, it remains low.

However, this situation is attributed to the nature of the pharmaceutical industry, where most traditional pharmaceutical companies also have a female regular employee ratio of around 30%. An industry insider explained, "The core jobs in the pharmaceutical industry are research and development (R&D), production, and sales. Among these, the gender ratio in R&D has become roughly equal, and female recruitment in production has recently increased," adding, "Although the barriers in sales are gradually breaking down, it is still an unavoidable fact that some remain." Yuhan Corporation has been striving to secure talented female personnel by participating in mentoring programs of the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET). In fact, the gender ratio in Yuhan Corporation's R&D division shows that women, numbering 221, outnumber men, who total 181.

The low proportion of female regular employees naturally caused a chain effect resulting in poor evaluations in average years of service and salary. Compared to men, whose average years of service is 13 years and 9 months, women averaged only 9 years and 7 months. The average salary also showed a significant gap, with men earning 104 million KRW and women 73 million KRW. Although the average years of service for women improved from 8 years and 5 months in 2019 to the current figure over five years, the salary gap widened as male employees’ average salary increased by 10 million KRW during the same period, while female employees’ salary rose by only 5 million KRW.

The composition of the board of directors is also a disappointing aspect. Among the seven registered directors of Yuhan Corporation, the only woman is attorney Shin Youngjae from the law firm Lin, serving as an outside director. Since Yuhan Corporation's asset size exceeded 2 trillion KRW in 2020, it became a company required to have a board composed of both men and women. Accordingly, attorney Shin joined the board in 2021, but the inside directors at the president level remain all male, including CEO Joo Wookje, President Kim Yeolhong, and Chairman Lee Jeonghee. However, among the five vice presidents who are potential candidates for the next president, there are women such as Im Hyoyoung, head of the Clinical Medicine Division, and Lee Youngmi, head of the R&BD Division, raising some expectations for the emergence of female registered executives.

Yuhan Corporation has recently been continuously implementing various systems to pursue gender equality without discrimination and prejudice in employee diversity. The most notable is the childbirth support fund system. Since last year, Yuhan Corporation has been providing 10 million KRW in support for each employee's child birth. Additionally, the company has established and operates various systems to prevent career interruption for female employees due to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, including parental leave, reduced working hours during pregnancy and childcare periods, hiring substitute personnel during maternity and parental leave, nursing rooms, and on-site daycare centers. They also offer bold scholarship support covering full tuition fees for children’s middle school, high school, university, and even medical and pharmaceutical graduate schools. However, the actual number of parental leave users is not high. As of the end of last year, only 21 out of 136 women eligible for parental leave at Yuhan Corporation used it. The gap is even wider among men, with only 8 out of 425 eligible male employees taking parental leave.