The effects of labor market characteristics on women’s poverty in Korea

Background: Poverty in Korea is not gender neutral. Both male headed and female headed households experience poverty in distinct ways. This research discusses poverty and how it has evolved in Korea from a gender perspective. Methods: It describes the characteristics of poverty among the working population based on gender and other household attributes. It measures poverty relative to the mean and median incomes of the population in three ways: headcount, poverty gap, and poverty severity. The study uses the probit model to estimate the incidence of poverty and the Heckman sample selection model to analyze poverty’s gap and severity. Our empirical results are based on an unbalanced household level panel covering the period 2006–2016. Results: Our results indicate that multiple factors including issues related to the labor market and demographic characteristics contribute to women’s poverty. Within the working population, women are less likely to be poor than men because they share their partners’ incomes. However, single female workers with children are the poorest demographic group. Conclusion: “Part-time jobs” are a critical factor in determining women’s poverty status, while “work years” and “the quality of occupation” have a crucial impact on the incidence and severity of poverty.