Female Workers at Gwangju Public Institutions Earn Less Than Male Counterparts

Structural Factors Such as Military Service Experience Have a Combined Effect
City: "Gender Pay Gap to Be Disclosed Every Two Years... Promoting Gender Equality"

Gwangju City Hall exterior view.

The city of Gwangju analyzed the status of the gender pay gap for 20 local public institutions that are funded or supported by the city in 2024, and disclosed the results on the Gwangju city website.

This disclosure was carried out with the aim of having the public sector take the lead in achieving gender equality in wage structures and spreading a positive impact to the private sector. In particular, by clearly publishing the numerical differences in wages between genders, the transparency of the system was enhanced.

According to the analysis, among the 2,260 regular and permanent contract workers at the 20 public institutions, 665 were women, accounting for 29.4% of the total. The average annual wage for female workers was found to be 12.1% lower than that of male workers.

By institution, the gap was especially pronounced at Gwangju Transportation Corporation (29.7%) and Gwangju Technopark (22.2%). These differences were attributed to several structural factors: the concentration of male employees in higher-ranking positions, differences in years of service due to recognition of military service, and disparities in the payment of overtime allowances.

The city stated that the analysis did not find any explicit wage discrimination based on gender. Going forward, the city plans to continue disclosing the status of the gender pay gap every two years in order to identify unreasonable factors and develop rational improvement measures.

On the 13th, Lee Youngdong, Director of the Department of Women and Family, said, "This gender pay disclosure is a starting point for spreading a culture of gender equality based on transparency and trust," and added, "By having public institutions take the initiative, we will encourage positive changes in the private sector as well."

Meanwhile, in order to provide institutional support for improving the gender pay gap, the city enacted the 'Gender Pay Gap Disclosure Ordinance' in July 2023. This ordinance was proposed by Chae Eunji, a member of the Gwangju City Council, and has served as a foundation for further strengthening gender-equal public management in Gwangju.