• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.1-38
• /
• 2019

This paper investigates the relationship between the occupational gender wage gap and the proportion of high wage earning female workers in Korea. The main idea is that an increase in the number of high wage earning female workers in the workplace could lead to a decrease in the gender wage gap by eradicating the prejudice or reducing the statistical discrimination on female workers. We constructed a panel dataset by using the raw data from the Korean Survey Report on Labor Conditions by Employment between 2009 and 2016. The result shows that greater presences of high wage earning female workers in male dominant occupations have statistically significant negative impacts on residual gender earning dispersion.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.1-29
• /
• 2013

This paper examines the effect of trade liberalization or globalization, more broadly, on plants' growth as well as on "bi-polarization". To do so, we reviewed the possible theoretical mechanisms put forward by recent heterogeneous firm trade theories, and provided available micro-evidence from existing empirical studies on Korean manufacturing sector. Above all, the empirical evidence provided in this paper strongly suggests that globalization promoted growth of Korean manufacturing plants. Specifically, evidence suggests that exporting not only increases within-plant productivity but also promotes introduction of new products and dropping of old products. However, the empirical evidence also suggest that globalization has some downsides: widening productivity differences across plants and rising wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. Specifically, trade liberalization widens the initial productivity differences among plants through learning from export market participation as well as through interactions between exporting and R&D, both of which increase plants' productivity. We also show that there is only a small group of large and productive "superstar" plants engaged in both R&D and exporting activity, which can fully utilize the potential benefits from globalization. Finally, we also show evidence that trade liberalization interacts with innovation to increase the skilled-unskilled wage inequality.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.77-102
• /
• 2007

This paper compares income and consumption for their relative effectiveness in measuring inequality. Although income inequality has received more attention in the literature, the permanent income hypothesis links consumption to welfare more directly than income. To the extent economic agents smooth their consumptions, consumption inequality is a better indicator for an economy's welfare inequality, and it is especially so when income volatility is high. The empirical analysis in this paper indicates that the income and consumption patterns among the Korean wage/salary worker households are quite consistent with the permanent income hypothesis. Further, it is found that consumption inequality tends to be lower than income inequality, and more importantly, that the two inequalities do not always vary in the same direction. These results call for stronger emphasis on consumption inequality in inequality literature.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.45-73
• /
• 2014

This study analyzes the effect of labor unions in Korean manufacturing industry on wage variance of men from 1988 to 2012. The results are as follows. Firstly, the wage variance within establishments is higher than that between establishments, and the wage variance between establishments in the non-union sector has increased significantly compared to that in the union sector since 2000. There is strong evidence that the latter is due to the solidarity wage policy of unions which has strengthened since the early 2000s. Secondly, the influence of labor unions on the wage structure within the union sector has gotten stronger recently despite the general drop in the labor union membership. Thirdly, since the mid-1990s labor unions have contributed to reducing the overall wage variance. It implies that decline in the unionization rate over the years in Korea is likely to have contributed to increasing wage inequality.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.33-51
• /
• 2023

This study aims to investigate the changes in the employment structure of occupational groups by job characteristics and analyze the factors influencing wage premiums in local labor markets from 2010 to 2020. This study's analysis involves three primary steps. First, the occupational characteristics data from the Korea Network for Occupations and Workers are subjected to an exploratory factor analysis, and then a non-routine task intensity index is calculated by each occupations. Then, we conduct an exploratory analysis of changes in the distribution of employment by occupation from 2010 to 2020 by combining data from the Population Census with data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study to construct individual-level and regional-level data. Thirdly, we employ a hierarchical linear model to examine the individual-level and regional-level factors influencing wage premiums. Since 2010, the proportion of employment in occupations requiring non-routine task has continued to rise and now dominates the metropolitan labor market. Moreover, agglomeration effects resulting from urbanization produce a substantial wage premium for wage workers in occupations requiring non-routine tasks. This study seeks to provide policy implications to mitigate inequality and polarization in local labor markets by empirically analyzing the transition of occupational structure and wage inequality in relation to the local labor market context.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.1-31
• /
• 2017

Recent empirical studies highlight the importance of between-firm or between-establishment factors in rising wage inequality. Examining the establishment-level data from the Mining and Manufacturing Survey of 2000-14, this paper finds that overall between-establishment wage dispersion has increased in Korea. However, unlike other OECD countries, the divergence occured in the lower tail of the wage distribution. Dispersion in labor productivity exhibits a similar movement, therefore explains the widening wage dispersion. In contrast, the link between wages and total factor productivity is much weaker, which appears to be associated with inefficient capital reallocation. I also find much heterogeneity in the productivity-wage relationship across productivity distribution. The most productive establishments turn the smallest portion of productivity gains into wage increases.

• Journal of Convergence Society for SMB
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.7-13
• /
• 2013

It will prove that with a more plausible specification of the relationship between income and the value of leisure, we can develop a more accurate model of the labor market without necessarily losing the primary merit of the received model. Moreover, with an improved understanding of labor market dynamic we can see that progressive era labor market legislation, designed to mitigate the effects of bargaining power inequality in low wage labor markets, was in fact based upon sensible economic foundations. The results of this study as follow; These low-wage dynamics present an example of a positive feedback system or "vicious circle" at work in the economy. With the revised labor supply schedule presented above, the market dynamic of the low wage sector push the wage away from the range that is consistent with a self-regulating market.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.59-84
• /
• 1996

It is generally believed that the medical profession in Korea is an well-paid field along with legal profession. In this vein, the nursing is regarded one of well-paid profession. The actual data, however, reveals that nurses belong to low income bracket. We carefully compare the nurse's earnings with those of other professions. We selected 58 professions, which are similar in vocational characteristics and education background to nurses and conduct a regression analysis to estimate earning functions. Using the estimated coefficients, we project an optimum salary level for nurse, and compare it with the actual salary level. The estimated results show that the nurses are underpaid : their actual salary is less than the optimum level. We provide several explanations for this phenomenon : a tradition based on Confucian value, wage discrimination for women, and wage inequality among hospitals. Undercompensation will result either ratard professional development, or block the motivation for high quality of nursing care. If the current underpaying situation is not improved, a shortage of nurses along with an noticeable decline in the quality of medical services are expected. Therefore an adequate compensation for nurses must be properly assessed and addresed not only be health care authorities but also by legislators. Further research is needed to explain why there is such as wide salary inequality among nurses, and to find what cause it.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.71-90
• /
• 2021

This paper examines the effects of COVID-19 on the working hours and wages by employment types of wage workers. Using the Economically Active Population Survey-Supplementary Survey by Employment Types(2017-2020), I found that due to COVID-19, non-regular workers reduced their working hours more than regular workers, shrinking their opportunities to generate wage income. During the same period, the working hours and wage gap between new regular and non-regular workers widened, this was largely in part-time and short-term workers. As the working conditions change based on the initial level, these results show that efforts to improve their(new and short term workers) working conditions can contribute to mitigating labor market inequality.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.65-80
• /
• 2000

In this paper We measured average earnings differentials between the government and the private sector, the degree of earnings inequality within each sector, and estimated net earnings differentials between the public and private sector in 1982, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 1998, respectively. According to our estimation results, the public servants in Korea are being more paid than the private sector on the average, and have been enjoying higher net wage premium after controlling variables such as education level, job experience and occupation, etc. In terms of earning inequality within each sector, the public sector was proven to have very narrow earnings differentials between the top and the bottom, compared to quite large differentials in the private sector. Wide recognition that the public servants' compensation is lower in Korea seems quite wrong. The problem to be resolved is the earnings standardization in the public sector and the strong trend toward more equality in recent years. We recommend that the wage gap between the higher rank and the lower rank should be extended, and employment flexibility within the lower positions or ranks of the bureaucracy should be enhanced.