Employment Inequality In South Korea Gets Worse As Number Of Irregular Workers Without Comprehensive Law-Mandated Benefits Continues To Increase

The great divide between South Korea's "regular" and "irregular" workforce has grown even more prominent, posing a worsening economic concern.

The Diplomat reported Tuesday new data from the South Korean government show that 6.2 million of the country's wage earners are categorized as "irregular", which accounts to 32.5 percent of the total workforce. This marks a 0.01 percent increase from the number of "irregular" workers in 2014, and a spike of 5.1 percent from 2002.

South Korea's labor force is divided into two categories: regular and irregular employees.

"Broadly speaking, a regular worker is a worker who receives the fullest benefits afforded by Korea's labor laws; an irregular worker is a worker who does not. An irregular worker may be a part time worker who works less than eight hours a day and forty hours a week; a contractor-worker who is hired and paid by a third party to work at a different workplace, or; a temporary worker who has a labor contract that is no more than two years in duration," Atty. S. Nathan Park explained.

Unlike regular employees, irregular workers are not granted the "four major insurances", namely the national pension, industrial accident compensation insurance, employment insurance and national medical insurance.

Moreover, regular workers are guaranteed a minimum number of paid personal days, which includes maternity leave for women, and also a severance package. They also enjoy security of tenure as they cannot be subject to a definite employment termination day unless they reach the mandatory retirement age. Regular workers are also protected from unjust termination. None of these guarantees are given to irregular employees.

According to Yonhap News, "The average monthly income for irregular workers is 1.4 million KRW [about $1,200], less than half that of regular workers (2.6 million KRW). The income gap increased. When wages increased by 3.5 percent for regular workers, irregular workers' pay only increased by 1 percent."

This stratification was a brainchild of reforms following the East Asian Financial Crisis that hit South Korean economy in 1997, the Wall Street Journal noted Feb. 25. The crisis triggered the need for a more flexible labor market. In response to the crisis, a reform to expand corporations' ability to employ new workers without giving them the full benefits package required under labor laws resulted in the creation of the irregular working sector.

Since irregular hires are easier to employ, their number has grown exponentially since 1997. Presently, they amount to one-third of South Korea's workforce.

With weakening job security and worsening job inequality, many of South Korea's workers are left in the dark and uncertain of their futures.