• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.115-158
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• 2017

This paper explores the relationship between working hours and the residual gender wage gap in Korea. Because the labor practice of working long hours in Korea favors men, who tend to spend little time on domestic labor, long working hours can influence the residual gender wage gap by discriminating against women. We analyze this discrimination empirically, and find the following results. First, the returns from working long hours are not high in most occupations in Korea. Second, working hours have a positive effect on the residual gender wage gap in male-dominated occupations, but not in female-dominated ones.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1191-1200
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• 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic can be deemed one of the greatest hardships faced by mankind in the 21st century. All industries have been severely affected and workers are still experiencing deep difficulties due to the changed working and living environment. Seafarers have been recognized by the international community as key workers since the pandemic began. They are also working internationally to establish a Level Playing Field through the protection of their rights through the Seafarers' Employment Agreement and the implementation of international labour standards. However, despite the obligations under international conventions to be implemented by State parties and the recommendations by international organizations, the rights of seafarers under the Maritime Labour Convention were violated were violated and their occupational safety and health of seafarers were further threatened throughout the pandemic. This article analyzes the impact of the international shipping industry and the implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention based on each country's measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the amendments of the Maritime Labour Convention adopted through the fourth Special Tripartite Committee were analyzed based on the conference documents and reports to comprehend the implied meaning. The adopted eight amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention are expected to positively affect the seafarers' rights, safety and health in the future, but the international community's efforts should continue because the issues of maximum working hours, maximum service period on board, and the repatriation of seafarers still remain unsettled.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.33-78
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• 2002

This study analyzes effects of the proposed reduction of legal working hours in Korea in which base wage is unchanged with working hours reduction. The theoretical analysis shows that a reduction of legal working hours would result in less than equal size reduction of actual working hours, and increase in wages. On the other hand, the effects on employment is ambiguous depending on the substitution effect and scale effect. An empirical analysis based on macro-economic model simulation supports the theoretical conjecture. It has been found that with the reduction of legal working hours, real wages and consumption increase while actual working hours decreases about half of the legal hours reduction. In addition, the immediate and outright imposition of legal hours reduction on all sectors of the economy is found to create a cost push inflation and reduce GDP, investment, and employment. This negative effects are lessened as the reduction of legal hours is gradually made and/or some measures to absorb the cost shock such as abolition of paid monthly leave are employed together.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.83-100
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• 2012

This paper estimates the impacts of introducing the 40 hour work week standard in South Korea on actual working hours, wages and employment. We exploit variation in timing of implementing the 40 hour work week standard across industries and establishment size and estimate the causal effects by a triple difference model. Our results show that the 40 hour work week standard decreased actual working hours by about 43 minutes while it increased hourly wage rate by 6.6%. The probability of new hires decreased by about 2.3% points.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.71-90
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• 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
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.31-68
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• 2017

This study examined the moonlighting behavior in Korea, to which relatively less attention has been paid. Based on the wage earners of 25 to 65 year old married, the results show that about 1.4% of the sample have dual jobs, working very long hours, on average 60 hours for a week combining both the primary job and the secondary job. The results of the fixed effects logit model on the moonlighting participation indicate that the wage rate and the hours of work in the primary job have a negative effect on moonlighting participation while the insecurity of the primary job appears to lead to a higher probability of taking a secondary job. The results of the moonlighting hours analysis suggest that hours worked in the primary job have a negative effect on moonlight hours while the wage of the primary job does not appear to have any significant effect on moonlighting hours. Interestingly enough, the wage of the secondary job appears to have a negative impact on moonlighting hours, which might be very plausible considering the long working hours moonlighters are engaged in.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-28
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• 2014

We use a set of Korea panel data to estimate effects of legal working hours reduction on actual hours worked and employment effects, through panel econometrics methods. Taking account of sequential decrease in legal hours worked since 2004, we estimate the relationship between legal and actual working hours by size of industries. It is found that one hour reduction of legal hours per week caused 0.44 to 1.05 actual hours worked on average per week, depending on different industrial sizes. Also, estimated employment effects were not unanimously determined, rather they turn out to be clearly size-dependent, which provide different results from exiting literature. Our analysis proposed in this work can be restrictive as, for instance, there is significant lack of data for foreign workers, particularly in the small-sized industries. Subsequent empirical analysis is expected.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.57-75
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• 2009

This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of SCHIP (The State Children's Health Insurance Program) on single mothers' working decisions using recent CPS (Current Population Survey) data during 1999-2005. SCHIP are found to have a significant positive impact on hours-worked decision.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.50-54
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• 2004

The study aimed to develop a mechanized mushroom growing system for the substrate materials mixing and wetting, materials fermentation and pasteurisation through the design of integrated cultivation machine system for oyster mushroom. The power requirement of the prototype during fermentation operation was measured in the range of 31$\~$33 kg-m and the torque has not so much differ by the kinds and quantity of materials. The work efficiency of conventional method for stacking the heap and turning the heap of cotton waste by tractor rotavator and manual wetting required 78 hours. But the watering, fermentation and sterilisation by the prototype use same operation required 25.5 hours, which can save the operation labour by $67\%$. The machine can be saved the requirement of heating energy by $63\%$, and the machine can also be saved the material cost by $44\%$. It is envisaged that the machine can effectively be used for large mushroom growing farms or joint use mushroom growing group-farmers in a village.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.118-122
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• 2000

An extensive investigation has been made for the possible utilization of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics in rice seedling nursery. Considering the cropping systems available in southern part of Korea, sowing dates were fixed at April 5 and April 20 for single cropping and May 6 and May 26 for double cropping. Nursery period was fixed to 35 days for each sowing date. Four different thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics, 40, 60, 80, 100 g/$m^2$, were tested in rice seedling nursery. The temperature and light intensity were not significantly different among the thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics. Light intensity was significantly reduced in polypropylene spunbonded fabric (72.2 Klux) compared with polyethylene mm (85.5 Klux), however, the reduced light intensity was enough for seedling growth. The temperature in the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering during low air temperature was higher than that in polyethylene mm tunnel. At transplanting, the rice seedlings grown in polypropylene spunbonded fabric condition was shorter (17cm) but healthier than those in polyethylene mm (23cm). The estimated possible nursery periods using the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering may start from April 1 at Chinju (plain area in Southern Korea, 20m altitude) and April 15 at Susang (mountainous area, 430m altitude). Labour hours and cost were reduced by about 28% and 48%, respectively.