과학기술인력의 성별 임금격차에 관한 연구

Employing female in the field of science and engineering is becomingincreasingly important with diversity and creativity emerging as key factors to buildCreative Economy. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to recognize anddiscourage gender discrimination in the labor market by analyzing wages – the marketvalue of labor which determines one’s economic status. This study uses theOaxaca-Ransom decomposition (1994) to analyze the gender wage gap and identifyfactors influencing the pay gap in science and engineering labor force. The results of this study are as follows: First, the average wage of female scientists andengineers reaches only 65% of that of male labor force, and the male scientist and engineersare superior in terms of personal attributes, for instance, education background. Second, lookingat the factors that influence wages, wage premiums are associated with higher educationbackground, older age, longer period of service, and weekly working hours for both male andfemale in managerial positions. Third, the wage decomposition shows that in the case of scienceand engineering labor force, the productivity difference by personal attributes reaches about58%, and gender discrimination by the characteristics of the labor market stands at about 41%. This means the wage gap by productivity level in science and engineering labor force is wider,and the gender gap is smaller compared to non-science and engineering fields. However, theresults of an analysis on specialties and education background of male and female scientistsand engineers suggest that the discrimination against women is more serious when the percentageof the female labor force is low and the percentage of temporary workers in the labor marketis high. In order to eliminate this discrimination, it is necessary to reduce the imbalance offemale scientists and engineers in the labor market, among others, while female scientists andengineers, themselves, need to make continuous efforts to strengthen their capabilities.