42% of women who leave jobs to care for family face lower pay on return

Seoul citizens commute to work in this photo taken on Jan. 2, in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. (Yonhap)

More than two-fifths of women who interrupted their careers to raise children are paid less than before on their return to work, a report by a Seoul-affiliated think-tank said, much higher than for men.

The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family recently published a report on the gender equality policies of the metropolitan government, which showed that 42.5 percent of women said their new wages were lower than before. Only 25 percent of men rehired after career breaks experienced a wage cut.

The difference appears largely to women taking longer career breaks and putting more priority on work-life balance after their return, the report showed.

The survey was conducted on Seoul residents aged 19-64, 2,045 women and 709 men.

A career interruption is defined by law as one taken due to marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, child care, care of family members, or working conditions. The government has implemented policies to allow a return to work after a career interruption.

The latest report showed that 25 percent of the surveyed women experienced a career interruption, compared to 7.3 percent of men.

A similar proportion — 21.6 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively — saw their salaries increase after returning to work. But a substantially larger portion of men (53.8 percent) saw their wages sustained at the same level as before, compared to women (35.9 percent).

The report indicated that many women in their new jobs prioritized work-life balance more than men. About 32.2 percent of the female respondents said the balance in work and life was better at their new jobs, compared to the 15.4 percent for male respondents.

"It appears to be the result of women whose career was interrupted moving to a job where they can balance work and life, even at the expense of lowering their wages," the report said.

It was also found that the career-interrupted women spent an average of 48.4 months before getting rehired, in contrast to 20.4 months for their male counterparts.

Researchers said that their findings showed that many women still face difficulties in rehiring after childbirth and child care, urging the city government to address the structural inequality between the genders.