[비즈한국] It has been found that discrimination between regular and non-regular workers has intensified, with the wage gap between them in South Korea widening to the largest extent on record. While the wage gap between regular employees at large corporations and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) narrowed last year, the gap between regular and non-regular employees at large corporations reached an all-time high. Furthermore, the wage gap between regular employees at large corporations and non-regular employees at SMEs also expanded to its widest level in seven years.
The phenomenon of the "rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer" is becoming increasingly severe in workers' incomes. Amid this situation where the wage gap between regular and non-regular workers is widening, attention is focused on President Lee Jae-myung’s remarks regarding the issue of labor flexibility to encourage regular hiring by companies, made during a luncheon with the chairmen of the two major umbrella unions on September 4.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s analysis report on employment status by employment type (as of June every year), the hourly wage for regular employees at large corporations with 300 or more employees was 42,548 won, an 11.3% increase from the previous year. The hourly wage for regular employees at SMEs with fewer than 300 employees was 24,565 won, an 11.6% increase from the previous year. The wages of regular SME employees were at 57.5% of those of regular large-corporation employees.
Although this is slightly more than half of the wages of regular employees at large corporations, it is the second-highest level since related statistics began to be compiled in 2011, following 2021 (58.6%). This means the wage gap between regular employees at large corporations and those at SMEs has narrowed. The wages of regular SME employees stood at 49.7% of those at large corporations in 2015, remaining below half, but after rising to 52.7% in 2016, they have shown a steady upward trend every year.
While the wage gap between regular employees at large corporations and SMEs is narrowing, the gap between regular and non-regular employees is actually widening. In 2024, the hourly wage for non-regular employees at large corporations was 26,524 won, a 3.3% increase from the previous year. While this was higher than the wages of regular SME employees, the gap compared to regular employees at large corporations has continued to widen. Last year, the wages of non-regular employees at large corporations were 62.3% of those of regular employees, a significant drop from 67.2% in 2023. Notably, this figure is the lowest on record since the survey began in 2011.
This is because while regular employees' wages rose by more than 10% last year, the wage increase rate for non-regular employees remained in the 3% range. The wages of non-regular employees at large corporations were at 70.3% of those of regular employees in 2011, but declined to 62.7% by 2016. They slowly recovered to 69.1% in 2021, briefly seeming to break through the 70% mark again, but fell to 65.3% in 2022 and dropped further to 62.3% last year.
For non-regular employees at SMEs, the gap was even wider. In 2024, the hourly wage for non-regular employees at SMEs was 17,644 won, which was only 41.5% of the wages of regular employees at large corporations. This is the lowest level in seven years since it was 40.3% in 2017. Wages for non-regular SME employees rose from 37.4% of regular large-corporation employees in 2016 to over 40% in 2017, and continued to rise to 45.6% by 2021.
However, after falling back to 43.7% in 2022, they dropped last year to a level threatening to fall back into the 40% range. As non-regular employees fail to keep pace with the wage growth of regular employees at large corporations, the "rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer" phenomenon among workers is worsening.
Meanwhile, it was found that the wage gap between regular and non-regular employees widens as the level of education increases. In 2024, the hourly wage for high school graduate regular employees was 21,251 won, while the wage for high school graduate non-regular employees was 17,186 won, at 80.9% of the former. In the case of junior college graduate regular employees, the hourly wage was 24,805 won, whereas for junior college non-regular employees, it was 17,002 won, only 68.5% of that.
For university graduates, this gap was even larger. While the hourly wage for university graduate regular employees was 31,561 won, the wage for university graduate non-regular employees was only 20,524 won, corresponding to 65.0%. This is interpreted as being because while differences in educational background are reflected in wages for regular employees, educational background does not significantly affect wages for non-regular employees.