South Korea's Gender-Separated Wage Disclosure via the Gender Equality Basic Act (2020)

In May 2020, South Korea amended its Gender Equality Basic Act (양성평등기본법) to require companies to disclose gender-separated wage statistics through the DART electronic disclosure system, with the obligation taking effect that November. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's own tracking shows the disclosed gap among listed companies at 35.9% in 2020, down 0.8 points from 36.7% in 2019.
Follow-on reporting has tracked the largest business-group affiliates (companies in conglomerates with combined assets over 5 trillion won) more closely: their disclosed gender pay gap fell from 30.7% in 2022 to 26.3% in 2023, driven by women's average pay rising 20.6% year-on-year versus 13.6% for men, according to Korea Herald's analysis of 2,647 companies' Financial Supervisory Service filings.
Despite this narrowing, the OECD's 2025 gender equality assessment still identifies Korea's gender wage gap (around 29-30% economy-wide) as the largest in the OECD, and flags pay transparency and stronger anti-discrimination enforcement as ongoing priorities — a bill to expand disclosure requirements further (the 'Five Gender-Equal Wage Disclosure Laws') was submitted to the National Assembly in 2025 partly because the existing mechanism was judged insufficient on its own.

Read the full analysis: https://en.sedaily.com/society/2026/09/07/koreas-gender-pay-gap-holds-at-29-percent-in-private-sector