South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to draw up a roadmap by the end of this year for what it calls "equal pay for work of equal value," a principle that guarantees comparable treatment for workers doing the same job regardless of employment type or gender.
The ministry is gathering input from experts with the aim of announcing the roadmap in December, officials at related government agencies said on the 18th.
Equal pay for work of equal value holds that workers performing jobs of equivalent value should receive the same wages. It is one of the main labor pledges of the Lee Jae-myung administration.
The roadmap is expected to include writing the principle into law, expanding the disclosure of wage information and promoting bargaining above the company level. The principle is already stated in law, but only in the Equal Employment Opportunity Act rather than the Labor Standards Act, leaving it to function in practice as a rule against gender discrimination alone. The ministry is therefore considering adding a provision to the Labor Standards Act stating that employers must pay equal wages for work of equal value. "We will meet with labor and management representatives soon to gather views from the field, and we will discuss a range of options, including legislation," a ministry official said.