Govt to Release Roadmap for 'Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value' Within Year

The Ministry of Employment and Labor has decided to draw up a roadmap within the year to realize "equal pay for work of equal value," which guarantees similar treatment for performing the same tasks regardless of employment type or gender.

The adoption of a job-based wage system is considered a key task for establishing the principle in the field, and the ministry plans to discuss ways to overhaul the wage structure by actively reflecting the opinions of labor and management.

According to related ministries and other sources on the 18th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is listening to experts' opinions with the goal of announcing the roadmap for realizing equal pay for work of equal value in December.

Equal pay for work of equal value is the principle that workers should receive the same pay if they perform work of essentially equal value.

This is one of the major labor pledges of the Lee Jae-myung administration.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor maintains that it is necessary to improve unreasonable discrimination between regular and non-regular workers performing the same tasks at the same workplace in order to resolve the dual structure of the labor market.

The upcoming roadmap is expected to include the legislation of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, enhanced provision of wage information, and the revitalization of multi-employer bargaining.

The principle of equal pay for work of equal value is currently specified in the law, but it is included only in the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation rather than the Labor Standards Act, making it effectively used only as a principle to prevent "gender discrimination."

Even then, cases leading to actual lawsuits are rare.

In response, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is considering legislation to explicitly include clauses such as "an employer must pay the same wage for work of equal value" in the Labor Standards Act.

To establish objective criteria for judging work of equal value, the provision of wage information must be strengthened.

The ministry is reviewing plans to provide detailed wage distribution information according to job duties, positions, and years of service through the wage and job information system.

It plans to utilize national statistical data to back up the reliability.

The problem is the prerequisite task of reforming the wage system.

South Korea's current wage system is mostly a seniority-based system where wages differ based on the length of service.

Because the seniority-based system determines base pay based on employment type and years of service regardless of the content of the work, it is difficult to apply the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

The "job-based wage system" is suggested as an alternative.

The job-based wage system calculates wages based on the nature, importance, and difficulty of the work.

In addition, the fact that South Korea is centered on enterprise-level labor unions rather than industrial-level unions is also cited as a factor making it difficult to implement the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

If unions are organized by industry, pay methods can be calculated by similar sectors, but when unions are organized by enterprise, they vary widely from company to company even within the same industry.

"Multi-employer bargaining" is drawing attention as a solution.

This is because sector-specific bargaining is possible through labor union cooperation that crosses company boundaries.

However, labor-management agreement is essential to realize equal pay for work of equal value.

The labor community opposes the transition to a job-based wage system, arguing it could be abused as a means to cut wages.

The management community maintains that uniform equal pay is difficult to pay because individual workers have different capabilities even when doing the same work.

An official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor said, "We will soon meet with labor and management relations to fully gather on-site opinions," adding, "We will discuss wage system reorganization, including legislation."

Meanwhile, Japan has been applying stricter revised guidelines for "equal pay for work of equal value" starting from the 1st of this month, such as prohibiting the reduction of wages for elderly workers re-employed after retirement simply because they are fixed-term workers.

(Photo: Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.