Is there a problem with wages and productivity in South Korea, which has overtaken Japan? - South Korean report

The Korean Employers' Association recently released the ``International Comparison Report on Wage Trends in Japan and South Korea'' and found that South Korea's wage level has surpassed that of Japan for the first time. According to this report, South Korea's
The average monthly wage for a company with 10 or more workers was 1,798,000 won (approximately 200,000 yen) in 2002, less than half of the wage in Japan (3,854,000 won / approximately 430,000 yen);
It is said that it overtook Japan in 2017. The average monthly wage in South Korea in 2022 is 3,998,000 won (approximately 445,000 yen), and in Japan it is 3,791,000 won (approximately 422,000 yen).
Ta. This means that the wage situation in both countries has reversed in the past 20 years. The causes of the wage reversal between Japan and South Korea are complex. First, in the case of Japan, the economic slump that began after the bursting of the bubble economy continued into the 2000s.
One point is that it lasted a long time. As companies' vitality has declined and their profitability has weakened, wages have had to be affected as well. During the same period, major export industries such as semiconductors and automobiles achieved strong results.
This situation is at odds with South Korea, where the status of companies as a base has increased and dynamism has strengthened. It is only natural that while Japanese companies were in a slump, wages at Korean companies, which continued to make good progress, increased.
You can say it's a result. However, the problem is productivity. South Korea's labor productivity per hour will be $49.4 (approximately 7,367 yen) in 2022, compared to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of $64.7 (
9,650 yen), which is lower than Japan (53.2%). The causes of low productivity can be found in various places, but one thing to pay attention to is the degree of immersion in work.
is. In a survey of human resources managers at large companies that rank among the top 100 in terms of sales, the average level of immersion among office workers remained at 82.7 points. If you work 8 hours, you will spend about 17% of your time smoking 1 hour and 20 minutes.
This means that you spend your time doing things other than actually working, such as surfing the internet, going out on personal trips, etc. In particular, the report shows that South Korea ranks behind Japan (5.884 million won/approx. 6.56 million yen) in terms of wages at large companies.
It is noteworthy that the price greatly exceeded the previous figure (4,434,000 won/approximately 4,940,000 yen). Although wages at small and medium-sized enterprises are at the same level in both countries, the gap has widened at large enterprises. A counterattack by Japanese companies aiming for a revival
The current situation is becoming increasingly intense, and a wage structure heavily weighted toward large companies is likely to be detrimental to South Korean industry. This is why we urgently need to expand employment among young people and resolve wage polarization.