• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.23 no.1_2
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• pp.193-231
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to clarify the real causes of gender wage differentials in Korea by analyzing changes over the period from 1984 to 1999. The participation rate of women in the Korean labor force has gradually increased since 1963, reaching 47.4 percent as of 1999. This increase can be attributed to more active participation by women of all ages, except those aged 15-19, as a result of their enrollment in higher level education. In particular, a remarkable rise in labor market participation was achieved by those aged 25-29. On the other hand, the ratio of female workers earnings to that of male workers has increased from 45.1 percent in 1972 to 63.1 percent in 1999. However, when the gender wage differentials are decomposed into various factors, it is found that discrimination components against female workers, compared to the skills or productivity characteristics, played a greater role for the 1994 to 1999 period.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

This paper analyzes the wage structure of college professors in private institutions in Korea. An analysis of earning functions reveals that the human capital of the professors is of more general type rather than firm-specific one. It is also found that the wage differential among colleges is far greater than that within colleges. Finally, the influence of research output or the fields of study on wage is found to be small. This shows that compensation for professors is set largely independent of individual performance or labor market conditions for professors.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.113-141
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• 2014

This paper examines the occupational gender wage gap in the Korea labor market. This paper classifies occupations into three(the blue-collar profession, white-collar profession and female-dominated profession) according to job characteristics and female worker's ratio. To analyze occupational gender wage gap, this paper uses Mincer's wage equation(1974) and Oaxaca model(1973). The results are listed below. First, the gender wage gap is growing in all occupations. Second, the cause of increasing gender wage gap varies in different occupations.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.25-48
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• 2006

In this study, the wage differentials between standard and non-standard workers are estimated using the data from the Establishment Employment Survey of 2003. The estimated wage differentials between standard and non-standard workers become greater controlling for the fixed effects of establishments. The within-establishment wage differential is estimated to be 20.7% between male standard and male non-standard workers in unorganized establishments controlling for establishment heterogeneity. However, the estimated overall wage differential is reduced to 6.8% due to the high wages of non-standard workers in large size establishments and the low wages of standard workers in small size establishments. This difference between 20.7% and 6.8% reflects the between-establishment wage differential. In organized establishments, the wage differential becomes larger, 21.8%, between male standard and male non-standard workers. For the male workers, the greatest wage differential between standard and non-standard workers is found in unorganized large size establishments: it is 35.9%. In organized establishments, it contracts to 25.8%. The additional estimations on the probability of becoming non-standard workers are done. For the male sample, the probability of standard workers to become non-standard workers in unorganized establishments is 6.0 percentage points higher than that in small size organized establishments. The probability is 20.7 percentage points higher for the female sample. However, the signs of the interaction terms of union and large size establishments are all negative. While the effect of large size establishments reduces the effect of union on the probability to 7.3 percentage points for the males, it reduces the probability to 16.0 percentage points for the females.

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

In this study we find that relatively high minimum wages should make the employment ratios of youth, old, and woman lower very significantly in those regions concerned, futhermore, make the overall employment ratios of those regions lower also by using a proxy variable, the Regional Minimum Wages-Half Median Wages Ratio which represents well the very stable differential structure of wage distributions among regions in Korea. In large Cities those effects become much stronger. But we find also that those effects on the rates of regional unemployment are somewhat double-faced except the case of youth because of the probable generating of many discouraged unemployed among the old and women. So, we can conclude that because of the differential regional economic situations it is not sustainable to increase the overall minimum wages uniformly and excessively and strongly necessary to explore ways toward introducing the proper system of regional minimum wages.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.79-106
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• 1992

This study analyzes the determinants of wage premium, defined as the excess of actual wage rate over opportunity wage, for the average worker in a Korean bargaining unit. Average wage premium of a firm is decomposed into quasi-rent per worker and rent-sharing rule. Per capita quasi-rent, representing a firm's ability to pay, is defined as the difference between sales revenue and the opportunity cost of mobile factors, divided by the number of employees. Rent-sharing rule, a measure of workers' bargaining power, is defined as the average wage premium divided by the per capita quasi-rent. Empirical results show that the differences in wage premium among Korean bargaining units are much better explained by the differences in quasi-rent than by the differences in bargaining power. Also, comparing the results of 1986 with those of 1988 show that the wage settlement mechanism in 1988 was not quite different from that of 1986, in spite of the drastic change in industrial relation system in 1987. It may simply yield higher opportunity wages, by raising the bargaining power of overall workers. The tendency of Korean labor market in 1988 to show a dual structure of high & low wage premium sectors, is not due to the fact that the differences in bargaing powers across firms tend to expand, but to the fact that unions tend to reduce the wage differences among the workers within an enterprise by pursuing more equal distribution of total wage premium. Hence, the policies for reducing the wage differentials across firms should focus on rent-regulating industrial policies, e.g. eliminating monopoly rents by deregulation.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.235-247
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• 2010

In this paper it is investigated how the number of work experiences is distributed among college graduates who have ever entered the labor market and built up career by turnover. To do so, we classified the type of work experience and, moreover, conduct ANOVA to explore wage differentials caused by the number of work experience and by the type of work experience, using the GOMS(graduates occupational mobility survey) from 2006 to 2007.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.1-26
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• 2010

Introducing a concept of 'the Effect of My Mom's Friend's Son'(MMFS Effect) into the conventional job search theory to develop it further, we try to estimate its effects on the hazard rate of youth pre-employment duration with some proxy variables such as his/her parents' schooling, monthly temporary/daily workers ratio, monthly average wage differentials between the workers of large and small firms. The results confirm us the fact that so called 'MMFS Effect' has been strengthened gradually up to recently. Their policy implications are as followings. Firstly, from the standpoint of shortening job searching period of youth and raising the hazard rate of their unemployment, the trend that the differentials of wages and quality of jobs in the labor market are expanding continuously is not desirable at all. Secondly, the problems of youth unemployment cannot be solved easily only by providing correct and relevant informations about the labor markets simply.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.79-102
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• 2013

This study aimed at empirically analysing the double discrimination on the elderly with disabilities due to both age and disabilities in the labor market. To achieve this research goal, real employment probabilities and hourly wages of the elderly disabled(below "ED") were compared with those of the young disabled(below "YD") and those of the elderly non-disabled(below "END") to calculate empirical differentials between ED's and YD's, and ED's and END's. The differential decompositions between groups were applied by the Oaxaca(1973). The study results were as followings. First, the real gaps of the employment probabilities between ED and YD only appeared at the regular jobs and the gaps due to the characteristics between ED and YD were bigger than those due to the age discrimination. Second, on the contrary, the gaps of the hourly wages were caused by age discrimination more than characteristics between YD and ED. Third, it was not true that the elderly with disabilities take double discriminations in the labor market. It is therefore required to give the additional incentives to ED workers with government subsidies of employment promotion for the disabled provided. Second, it is proposed that the integrations the employment policies for the disabled with those for the aged because the disability as dependent valuable didn't have statistically significant effects on the employment probabilities and the hourly wage levels.

• 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.