The Effect of the Male-Female's Labor Market Participated Pattern on the Wage Differentials in Korea

성별 노동시장 참가패턴이 임금격차에 미치는 효과

Based on the human capital theory, the wage differentials among laborers are generated from the discrepancy of human capital stock which depends on individual laborer's decision. Hence, the wage differentials among laborers or between male and female are not the results of discrimination, but the results of individual choice. But, if the individual choice for human capital stock would be affected by the male-female discrimination, the explanation for male-female wage differentials base on the human capital stock has a bias. Actually, women have experienced in the discrimination on labor market participation due to gravity, parturition, infant rearing. Also, it is a fact that women have been discriminated against men in labor market owing to social, traditional, and cultural discriminations. If woman or her parent will less invest on human capital than man owing to the existence of discrimination in labor market, the 'expected human capital stock' instead of human capital stock will explain male-female wage differentials better. Therefore, in this study, we set up three models; first model includes working hours, industry, occupation, etc which are in general used as explanatory variables for wage decision, second model includes the variables which reflect the traditional human capital stock together with the first model's explanatory variables, third model employes the 'expected human capital stock' instead of traditional human capital stock. From the empirical test, the estimates of discrimination in three models are .93, .60, and, .48 respectively. This result implies that the male-female wage differentials in Korea can be explained by the discrepancy of 'expected human capital stock'. Since the discrepancy in expected human capital stock depend on the disparity in life-cycle labor force participation, male-female wage differentials can largely be attributed to male-female disparity in expected lifetime labor force participation.

인간자본론에 의하면 노동자들간의 임금격차는 인간자본 축적량의 차이에 의해 설명될 수 있는데, 인간자본스톡의 정도는 개인의 선택에 의해 결정된다. 그러나 만일 인간자본스톡에 대한 개인의 선택, 즉 인간자본에 대한 투자결정이 차별에서 영향을 받는다고 하면 인간자본스톡에 근거한 남녀간 임금격차의 설명은 편의를 갖게 된다. 대다수 여성의 경우 노동시장참가가 불연속적으로 이루어지므로 이를 예상(기대)하는 여성이 남성에 비하여 인간자본에 대한 투자를 상대적으로 적게 한다면, 남녀 임금격차를 설명하기 위해서 인간자본스톡변수 대신에 기대(expected) 인간자본스톡변수를 사용하는 것이 편의의 발생을 줄이고 더 정확한 분석결과를 얻을 수 있을 것이다.