Why Korea’s labor productivity is so low

Found a few different analyses on this.

The first factor is the wage gap based on age due to the seniority-based pay system. Basically, a manager (20 years in) gets paid way too much compared to a new hire. In other countries, it's usually around 2x, but in Korea, it's about 2.8x. Department heads (30 years) get 4.3x, which is significantly higher than elsewhere. Other reports say executives average 10x.

The second factor is the lack of job boundaries. Instead of giving subordinates specific, defined tasks, bosses just dump whatever random work on them.

Regarding this, CEOs insist things will improve if they can fire people at will, while labor unions argue that shortening work hours is the solution.

Personally, I think these two factors are just two sides of the same coin. It seems to stem from the deep-rooted hierarchy in Korean society—likely a result of the rigid discrimination based on university entrance exam scores.

So, the only way to fix this would be to smash the social structure built on networking, blood ties, and regionalism. But since that’s basically asking the elites to give up their privilege, it feels pretty much impossible.

Check the source for more details.