Take a look at the picture above and try explaining to someone, anyone, why they deserve to be paid 40% less than their male counterparts.
I can guarantee you one thing: You won’t find a single reason. Not one.
If you can, well, you’re just plain absurd.
I. Korea’s Gender Wage Gap
Korean women suffer the worst pay gap among all industrialized OECD nations.
It’s a dismal recognition, and sadly, it has only improved by 2 percentage points over the past 10 years.
Women have played an indispensable role in the rise of Korea; some of the most accomplished and dignified members of our community are women. Therefore, it’s absolutely imperative we work towards correcting this regretful wag gap, and that we begin now.
There is absolutely no reason to value a woman any less than a man.
In doing so, we not only belittle a staggering half of our population, but we lower the very value of our collective community.
So may we recognize the strength, and more importantly the responsibility, of our current torch, and resolve to close the ever present wage gap within Korea.
If we desire a society that accepts one as all, let us now stand behind the one who has fallen behind.
“Women’s rights are Human Rights.” — Hillary Clinton
II. Gender Blind Activism
The gender wage gap is not solely a woman’s issue.
While it may be women who are directly affected by this epidemic, it is absolutely not only a woman’s issue.
We all need to be cognizant of the immense pay disparity and recognize how this pervasive norm is not only detrimental to women, but to our greater society.
When we degrade the value of one’s work based on gender, we have blinded ourselves to who we are as a people; equal.
I’m a 32 year old Korean American male (교포) living in Seoul, and if you believe this is an issue that doesn’t effect me, you’re dead wrong.
Discrimination, of any kind, whether directed towards me or not, is an affront on the very community I reside in. It’s an advance on my colleagues, friends, family, and even greater, to the generation yet to receive the brutal reality of a systematic curse of gender prejudice.
It is as much my responsibility to fight for the plight of women, as it is for every other person who resides in Korea. If at any point you question whether this battle applies to you, ask yourself this one question:
‘Do I have a mother?’
We all have a moral obligation to push the headwinds of gender equality forward.
I would argue, even more so for Korean men. As those directly benefiting from this odd cultural wage framework, we hold a deeper responsibility to acknowledge the misguided proportion of wage value and to share in the struggle of our female counterparts.
This movement will inevitably be met with resistance, as all such groundbreaking shifts do. And in reality, who do you think will be opposed to such a monumental change in wages? I can guarantee you, it won’t be Korean women.
Further signaling, just how important it will be for men to join in this crusade and to fight alongside the women of Korea.
While the pay gap directly affects one gender alone, those needed to fight against this inequity should be blind to gender.
“The significant problems of our time cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” — Albert Einstein
III. Economic Impact
South Korea was named the most innovative country in the world in 2015.
A well deserved title, as Korea does indeed push the outer limits of what tomorrow can be. Global technology trends are born here.
Yet, what good is technological innovation when the very same principles of forward thinking are not vigorously applied towards social justice for the actual people responsible for the above title.
If Korea can be the most innovative country in the world with a canyon of a wage gap, imagine what it could do if it raised the tides of pay for half the national workforce. It would be unleashing a power the world has yet to see.
By under-utilizing women, The Korean Women’s Development Institute reckons that Korea squanders more than $13 billion annually in lost output.
$13 Billion..
With the Nation’s economic growth slowing, exports declining and consumer spending on a downward slope, South Korea is in no position to not fully tap their workforce.
Goldman Sachs recently published a report citing that Japan’s economy would gain a 15 percent-point boost if female labor participation approached those of men. South Korea, even more so.
It’s no secret that countries that fully utilize their workforce are more dynamic, profitable, and truly innovative.
President Park dreams of a ‘Creative Economy’. Dedicating nearly $3 billion to develop a global hub of startup innovation. Rather than seeing that money go into another government funded incubator, I’d much rather see those funds invested into a real variable for economic success: Equal Pay for Women.
Creative Economy? How about an economy that recognizes that the true value of it’s future doesn’t reside in fancy startup incubators or the pockets of venture capitalists, but in treating it’s workforce with equal dignity and respect.
When women lose out, Korea loses out.
IV. Change the Law
There is no better time than now for Korea to enact an ‘Equal Pay Act’ that will abolish wage disparity based on sex.
The federal legislation should require companies to pay men and women who hold similar positions equally. Further, it should mandate all companies to report salary data to a third party entity separate from the government for annual publishing. Making transparent where companies fall along the spectrum of wage equality.
Instead of expending resources on new government issued textbooks with a polish on the past, policy makers need to bridge the divide and ensure that Korea is no longer behind every OECD country in the matter of equal pay.
Rather than rewrite history, how about making significant history?
V. I Fight for My Best Friend
My best friend in Korea is a strong, independent and dynamic woman; a pioneer in the Seoul startup community. She is the very symbol of the strength, passion, and hope for this new generation working to build a bridge to economic and cultural prosperity for this nation we call home.
I am always in awe and deeply inspired by her immense devotion to not only her startup but her career.
She luckily works for an esteemed startup that values all it’s employees with a deep sense of equality, but that’s not the case for most women in Korea.
Korean women shouldn’t have to be ‘lucky’ to have employers value them equally. It should be the norm.
Discrimination based on one’s gender is sexism in it’s purest form; a silent butcher of opportunity and platform for misogyny.
And Korea, nor any country, should be hindering opportunity for women.
So I fight for her. I fight for my mother. I fight for my sister. And I fight for generations of women yet to come.
We hold inherently, within the very genes of our time, the ability to shape society; shape home.
It’s time now, to shape the future of Korea as one that will always hold true to it’s founding jeong (정): One MinJok (민족). Equal.
