• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.33-60
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• 2007

This study analyzes the trend of the gender wage gap and its sources in the Korean labor market for the years 1985-2004. Following Oaxaca and Ransom (1994), the gender wage gap is composed of the productivity-related gap and non-productivity-related gap (unobserved productivity gap and discrimination). Empirical findings indicate that both the productivity-related gap and non-productivity-related gap have dwindled, while the decline of the former far excelled that of the latter. The non-productivity-related gender wage gap is much larger for married women than for single women, possibly implying a lower unobserved productivity of married women because of their childcare responsibilities. The non-productivity-related gap is also very substantial in the male-dominated occupations as compared to the female=dominated occupations, supporting the existence of network externalities in employment.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.295-327
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• 2011

Although there are many studies on the retirement recently, very few studies have empirically addressed on mandatory retirement. In Korea, several scholars suggest that the seniority systems may be the main reason that employers have been reluctant to hire older workers. Therefore, the seniority system that Lazear(1979) proposed has significant implication on explaining mandatory retirement in Korea. Thus, this study aims to examine the seniority system that Lazear proposed can explain the retired employees' mandatory retirement. The empirical study is based on Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. wave I-II. The main result from this analysis is that interaction between wage and job tenure on mandatory retirement is statistically significant. For employees with high wage growth rates, the probability of mandatory retirement rate is higher as their job tenure is longer. On the other hand those employees with wage growth rates, that is lower although their job tenure is longer. This study supports the assertion of Lazear(1979).

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers' wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. Contrary to public perception that foreign ownership is positively associated with higher wages, previous studies show mixed results. Since most of the previous studies used industry or firm level average wages, they can not control for the impact of individual characteristics on wages. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1) One-step estimation with industry-state level of inward foreign direct investments by using individual level data, and (2) Two-step industry characteristic regression approach. The higher presence of foreign firms is associated with higher local wages after workers' observable characteristics are controlled for in the first approach. This effect, however, disappears once workers' industry affiliations and regions are controlled for in cross-section analysis. In a panel data analysis, I did not find any statistically significant positive association between inward FDI activities and industry wage premiums within industry. Further, inward FDI activities appeared to be negatively associated with worker's industry wage premium for workers with more than high school education.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.171-181
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• 2020

This is an empirical study that analyzes factors affecting the work-family compatibility of female wage workers with underage children. The analysis was conducted with 1,113 women from the 7th wave of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families by Korean Women's Development Institute. As for research methods, multiple regression analysis was used in order to analyze the effects of 'social support(home support, maternity protection support, childcare and education services)', 'job characteristics', 'socio-demographic variables' and 'husband characteristics' on 'work-family compatibility and conflict'. As a result, it was analyzed that the husband's support for work life, gender inequality at work and women's educational training were the factors that strengthen work-family compatibility. It was also analyzed that gender inequality, use of childcare and education facility, number of underage children, age of husband, husband's satisfaction with caring support and husband's support for work life were the factors that cause conflict between work and family. Thus, if the policy of strengthening the work-family compatibility is a long-term policy, it appears that it is necessary to supplement and strengthen policies that can reduce conflict factors in the short term. It is hoped that the results of the study will be used as objective and academic data to strengthen the maternity protection and work-family compatibility of female workers with underage children.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.368-379
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to establish a strategy to improve the poor working environment and working conditions among long-term healthcare workers in Korea. Methods: A total of 600 questionnaires with which long-term health care workers participated in the targeted base areas of each city and province nationwide were distributed directly and 525 responses were collected and 506 responses were analyzed. Surveys, on-site field visits, and in-depth interviews were also conducted to understand the working environment as well as conditions and establish a strategy for improving the working environment among long-term healthcare workers to understand the demands of working conditions and working conditions. Results: Korean long-term care workers firstly and mostly enumerated their risk factors for ill-health when lifting or moving elderly recipients directly by hand (69.9%), followed by increased physical workload with old beds, tools, and facilities (42.3%) in the workplaces, shortage of manpower (32%), and source of infection (30%). To improve the working environment as well as conditions, Korean long-term care workers considered improving low-wage structures, ergonomic improvements to solve excessive physical loads, and increasing various bonus payments as well as implementing the salary system, positive social awareness, and increasing resting time. Of 506 responses, 92.3% replied that the long-term care insurance system for the elderly should be developed to expand publicization at the national level. Conclusion: This study proposes to improve the low-wage structure of Korean long-term care workers, automation and improvement of facilities, equipment, and tools to eliminate excessive physical loads (beneficiary elderly lifting), and reduction of night labor.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.129-136
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to explore the institutional protection scheme to identify the factors influence physician turnover of social workers. The main reference comes from the 2014 research on wages and work conditions of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The result of the analysis shows that 33.7% of the social workers intend to change jobs and that the possibilities of changing jobs have factors in gender, age, education levels, job satisfaction, wage, and contractual factors. This result shows that in order to enhance support of underprivileged, the treatment of social workers needs to be improved. This research proposes settings of switching job position system through facility M&A and institutional development.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.95-137
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• 2012

Inflow of foreign workers and immigrants increase the supply of unskilled labor in the economy. In measuring their impacts, an impact evaluation method produces unreliable estimates because a control group independent from their impacts is hardly found within the economy. This study adopts an aggregate factor proportions approach and measures the impacts by estimating the effects of skills proportion changes in labor supply on relative wages. The estimation uses two and three skills groups categorized by education levels. The study reveals that foreign workers and immigrants contribute to economic growth by a small margin while they significantly widen the wage gap between native skilled and unskilled workers. The result is based upon the fact that the existing foreign workers and immigrants are predominantly the least skilled groups. The estimates can be applied in predicting the impacts of labor inflow from North Korea which always remains as a possibility in Korea.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.45-71
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• 2022

This paper studies potentially relevant factors affecting changes in the number of self-employed in Korea during the period of 1986-2018. The number of self-employed had increased steadily until 2002 but started to decrease around that time and had continued to decline. The increasing trend in the number of self-employed during 1986-2001 is mostly explained by demographic changes, whereas the declining trend during 2002-2018 cannot be explained by demographic factors. In this study, I consider four institutional factors that potentially affect the decrease in the number of self-employed after 2002: i) a decrease in the job-separation rate of wage workers, ii) an increase in the income tax rate applied to the self-employed, iii) an increase in minimum wages, iv) an expansion of unemployment insurance benefits. Using a search and matching model with the self-employed, I quantify the effects of these four factors on the decrease in the number of self-employed during 2002-2018. Quantitative results show that the impact of the increase in the minimum wage is relatively large, whereas the effects of the other three factors are limited. The increase in the minimum wage accounts for approximately 17.5% (0.169 million) of the decrease in the number of self-employed during 2002-2018 (0.964 million).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 1993

The purposes of this study were to: (a) measure the levels of job satisfaction with five facets of a job: the work itself, promotion, pay, supervision and co-workers and (b) investigate relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction levels of the dietitians in school foodservice. Subjects consisted of 151 dietitians, with 91 in Seoul and 60 in KyoungKi-Do. The survey form was developed on modifying Job Descriptive Index developed by Smith, Kendall, Hulin and Job Characteristics Inventory developed by Sims, Szilagy, Keller. The responding rate was 81.7%. Data were analyzed for frequencies, means, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and multiple regression using SPSS PC Package. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Less than a half of the sample(40.9%) were 31 to 35 years, married were 62% and junior college graduates were 33.9%. 2) A striking majority of the respondents(81.7%) ranked work itself as the the most important aspect of their jobs. 3) The dietitians were the most satisfied with work itself, then supervision, co-workers, wage and promotion in decreasing order. 4) In relations of demographic factors to the job satisfaction, satisfactions with wage and co-workers were found significantly related to education. 5) Task identity was the most prevalent job characteristics. 6) The $R^2$ for the multiple regression model was 0.26, indicating that 26% of the variance in job satisfaction could be accounted for the job characteristics. This model showed that friendship of job characteristics made the greatest contributions. The second was variety and the third was dealing with others. Especially dealing with others was negatively related to job satisfaction.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-39
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• 2007

This study focuses on the possibility that skill-biased technological change is one of the factors for relatively poor employment conditions of the unskilled after the economic crisis. Increasing employment share of skilled workers accompanying with rising wage premium for education since implies that labor demand has shifted toward the skilled. The decomposition of changes in wage share of skilled workers into between-industry and within-industry changes suggests that the increase in the demand for skilled labor has been largely due to within-industry changes, which can be seen as reflecting the effect of the skill-biased technological change. Also the regression results indicate that the employment share of skilled workers has more rapidly increased in the industries with higher ICT (Information Communication Technology) investment intensity since the mid 1990s, hinting to the possibility that skill-biased technological changes may have come from ICT.