KRIVET Issue Brief People are Our Hope
Effect of Workers’ Gop–Eul (aka Superior–Subordinate) Perceptions and Work Ethic on Income
- Among the Korean workers who participated in the study, 11.8%, upon self-evaluation, perceived themselves as gop (a superior) in the workplace. The men were twice more likely than the women to think they were a gop (13.7% vs. 9.2%), but the difference by education level was not statistically significant.
- Overall, the gops ’ income (KRW4.124 mn) was 69.3% higher than the euls ’ (subordinates) (KRW2.859 mn). The male gops made double of what the female euls did (KRW4.621 mn vs. KRW2.324 mn).
- The incomes of the participants who identified themselves as having a strong work ethic (KRW3.686 mn) were KRW1.243 mn higher than those of the participants who self-evaluated their work ethic as “ average ” (KRW2.442 mn).
- The findings revealed that a worker ’ s gop/eul perception and work ethic are closely related to income.
01 Necessity for Data Analysis
| This study analyzed the income differences by gop/eul perception and work ethic at the workplace.
Jobs can be defined as activities for earning a living based on the compensation obtained while meeting the needs of the society.
- Income (i.e., economic compensation for work rendered) is the first and core factor that Koreans consider when selecting a job.
- Income by job is influenced by a wide range of factors, including industry, job type, company size, and worker education and age.
- As job-related perceptions and work ethic are also assumed to have a great influence on income, it is important to analyze these factors systematically to draw practical implications.
In this analysis, we take an in-depth and systematic look into the association between the participants’ responses related to their work values and income level.
- We aim to identify the relationships between gop/eul perception, perception of oneself as being initiating and perceptive, and work ethic on the one hand and income level on the other.
| Data for analysis: Results of the Survey on the work values and work ethics of Koreans (2018), KRIVET
The subjects of the analysis were 999 of the 1,005 employed Koreans aged 15–64 years who were sampled by region in proportion to the population. The sample excluded the cases without a reported income (six persons), such as the non- income workers.
Publisher: Young Sun Ra | Date of issue: December 21, 2020 | Issued by: Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET)
2020
No.202
KRIVET Issue Brief
<Table 1> Subjects for analysis
2018 N Proportion (%)
All 999 100.00
Gender Female 414 41.40
Male 585 58.60
By education level Minimally educated(high school or lower) 398 39.84
Highly educated (college or higher) 601 60.16
02 The income level is what those who consider themselves a gop.
| Those who consider themselves a gop have a higher income level, and there are also income differences between the gops and the euls by gender and education level.
After self-evaluating their jobs and work positions, 118 of the 999 respondents (11.8%) answered that they were gops.
- Men were much more likely to think they were a gop than the women (13.7% vs. 9.2%), implying that men are in a more favorable socioeconomic position than women. However, the difference by education level was not statistically significant.
<Table 2> Gop-eul distribution by gender and education level
(persons, %)
Gender By education level Total
Female Male Minimally educated Highly educated
Gop 38 9.2 80 13.7 45 11.3 73 12.1 118 11.8
Eul 376 90.8 505 86.3 353 88.7 528 87.9 881 88.2
Total 414 100.0 585 100.0 398 100.0 601 100.0 999 100.0
The income distributions of those who perceive themselves as a gop and those who perceive themselves as a eul by gender (Figure 1) reveal that the overall income distribution is different, including the median difference by class.
- Centering on the median income, the first quartile (Q1) and third quartile (Q3) are shown in squares. The distribution, based on the fence (1.5 × [Q3–Q1]) (Figure 1), shows similar levels for the female gops and the male euls.
[Figure 1] Income distributions of gops and euls by gender
The average income of all the employed participants is 3.09 million won. The gops have a 69.3% higher average income than the euls (KRW4.124 mn vs. KRW2.859 mn).
- By gender, the men who consider themselves a gop have the highest income (KRW46.21 mn) and the women who consider themselves a eul have the lowest income (KRW2.324 mn). The income gap by gender among the gops is greater than that among the euls. The average income of the female gops, however, is not significantly different from that of the male euls.
- By education level, the highly educated workers who perceive themselves as a gop have the highest income (KRW4.726 mn), and the minimally educated workers who perceive themselves as a eul have the lowest income (KRW2.058 mn). The income gap by education level among the gops (KRW1.578 mn) is larger than that among the euls (KRW585,000). There is no statistically significant difference in the average income of the minimally educated gops and the highly educated euls.
I Note I
By gender: χ2 (1) = 4.7055 (p = 0.030)
By education level: χ2 (1) = 1.621 (p = 0.678)
1,000 800 600 400 200
0 Female gop male gop female eul male eul
Income (KRW10,000)
December 21, 2020
I Note I
1) F-test results: by gender, F (3,995) = 95.58***; by education level, F (3,995) = 66.07***
2) t-test results: by gender, male gops vs. female gops t = 6.50***, female gops vs.
female euls t = 3.68***, male euls vs. female gops t = 0.88, male gops vs. female euls t = 15.50***, male gops vs. male euls t = 9.42***, male euls vs. female euls t = 11.38***;
by education level: highly educated gops vs. minimally educated gops t = 6.67***, minimally educated euls vs.
minimally educated gops t = -3.24, highly educated euls vs. minimally educated gops t = -0.28, minimally educated euls vs. highly educated gops t = -13.83***, highly educated euls vs. highly educated gops t = -10.48***, highly educated euls vs. minimally educated euls t = 6.83***
3) Significant at the *** = 0.000 level.
I Note I
1) F-test results: by employment status F (3,995) = 36.83***, by region of residence F (3,995) = 33.16***
2) t-test results: by employment status, gop Non-income workers vs. gop income workers t = 0.01, eul income workers vs. gop income workers t = -7.30***, eul non- income workers vs. gop income workers t = -3.31, eul income workers vs. gop non-income workers t = 7.67***, eul non- income workers vs. gop non- income workers t = 3.42**, eul non-income workers vs. eul income workers t = 3.36**.
By region of residence: gops residing in a metropolitan vs. non-metropolitan area t
= 0.81, gops vs. euls residing in a metropolitan area t = 6.85***, gops residing in a metropolitan area vs. euls residing in a non-metropolitan area t = 7.29***, gops residing in a non-metropolitan area vs.
euls residing in a metropolitan area t = 6.68***, gops vs. euls residing in a non-metropolitan area t = 7.20***, euls residing in a metropolitan area vs. euls residing in a non-metropolitan area t = 0.80
3) Significant at the *** = 0.000 and
** = 0.001 levels I Note I
E m p l o y m e n t s t a t u s : χ
2(1) = 178.4222 (p=0.000), Region of residence: χ2(1) = 0.1900(p=0.663)
[Figure 2] Income differences between the gops and euls by gender and education level.
There is a statistically significant difference between the income workers and non-income workers owing to the high gop ratio of the non-income workers by employment status, but there is little difference by region of residence.
- This seems to be because non-income workers are more likely to be employers or self-employed people engaging in economic activities in gop positions while income workers are more often than not supervised.
- In contrast, there is no significant difference in gop–eul ratio between those employed in a metropolitan area and those employed in a non-metropolitan area.
<Table 3> Gop–eul distribution by employment status and region of residence (persons, %)
(persons, %)
Employment status Region of residence
Total Income worker Non-income
worker Metropolitan area Non-metropolitan
Gop 56 6.5 62 46.6 50 11.3 68 area 12.2 118 11.8
Eul 810 93.5 71 53.4 392 88.7 489 87.8 881 88.2
Total 866 100.0 133 100.0 442 100.0 557 100.0 999 100.0
The income workers and non-income workers in gop positions have very similar incomes. In contrast, the non-income workers in eul positions have significantly higher incomes than the income workers.
- Although there is a clear income difference between gops and euls by region of residence, the difference is not statistically significant.
[Figure 3] Gop–eul income difference by employment status and region of residence
03 Individual Work Ethics and Income Level
| In terms of work ethic, those who perceive themselves as being highly initiating and perceptive tend to have significantly higher incomes.
Work ethic refers to a worker’s work-related beliefs, attitudes, and activities and can be regarded as an employment competency.
- Work ethic was measured using the Korean version of the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory-Short Form with 12 items:
dependable, ambitious, following directions, effective, courteous, initiating, perceptive, likeable, cheerful, following regulations, friendly, and resourceful.
307.9 314.8
462.1 472.6
232.4 250.8
325.7
309.4 500.0
450.0 400.0 350.0 300.0 250.0 200.0
500.0 450.0 400.0 350.0 300.0 250.0 200.0
Female gop Minimally
educated gop
Male gop highly
educated gop
Female eul minimally
educated eul
Male eul highly
educated eul
412.2 423.8
412.6 404.1
281.6 289.8
335.5
282.8 450.0
400.0
350.0 300.0 250.0 200.0
450.0 400.0
350.0 300.0 250.0 200.0
Gop income Gop
metropolitan area gop non-
income gop non-
metropolitan area
eul income eul
metropolitan area eul non-
income eul non-
metropolitan area
KRIVET Issue Brief
｜ KRIVET Social Policy Building, Sejong National Research Complex, 370, Sicheong-daero, Sejong-si, Republic of Korea ｜ Tel: 044-415-5000/5100 ｜ www.krivet.re.kr ｜ - Among these items, in the euls, as the perception of oneself as initiating becomes higher, the level of income rises significantly,
similar to the results of the previous studies. Although being initiating and being a gop are indeed associated with each other to a certain degree, most of those who perceive themselves as highly initiating were found to consider themselves a eul.
- A good understanding of one’s surroundings (whether “neutral” or “high or very high”) was found to account for a large difference in income.
[Figure 4] Income difference by initiative and understanding of one’s surroundings
04 Implications
In Korea, the gop–eul relationship seems to drive work, but our analysis confirmed the existence of a compensation gap between the gops and the euls. This indicates that the gop–eul relationship in business between the principal and the subcontractors is also applied at the personal level. The government should consider policy alternatives to protect the euls given their lack of information or knowledge about or experience in not only business-to-business transactions but also individual transactions.
No income difference was found between the highly educated euls and the minimally educated gops or between the male euls and the female gops, but the highly educated gops make almost double of what the minimally educated euls make, and the income of the male gops is almost twice that of the female euls.
This raises the need for a policy to support the eul classes. Among the various work ethic indicators, we confirmed that being highly initiating and perceptive of what is going on in the workplace contribute to the increase of one’s income level.
Thus, it is necessary to include overall work ethic, including dependability, in the job training conducted in and outside companies. This finding also emphasizes the importance of taking initiative at work and understanding work-related circumstances.
Park, Cheonsoo (Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, KRIVET) Park, HwaChoon (Ph.D., Associate Research Fellow, KRIVET)
I Note I
1) F-test results: Initiative F ( 4 , 9 9 4 ) = 2 0 . 1 4 * * * , Understanding of one’s surroundings F (4,994) = 13.36***
2) t-test results: Initiative:
High vs. low t = 4.51***, Very high vs. low t = 5.51***, Moderately high vs. neutral t = 4.42**, High vs. neutral t = 6.86***, Very high vs.
neutral t = 7.03***, High vs.
moderately high t = 3.05, Very high vs. moderately high t = 4.39**, Very high vs. high t = 2.49 Understanding of one’s surroundings: High vs. low t = 3.33, Very high vs. low t
= 3.91**, Moderately high vs. neutral t = 2.10, High vs.
neutral t = 5.10***, Very high vs. neutral t = 5.23***, High vs. moderately high t = 4.24**, Very high vs. moderately high t = 4.31**, Very high vs. high t
= 1.76***
3) Significant at the *** = 0.000 and ** = 0.01 levels 4) Initiative: * Moderately low
includes low (10 persons) eul Understanding of one’s surroundings: **Moderately low includes very low (1 person) and low (1 person).
232.7 244.2 297.3
327.8 368.6 400.0
350.0
300.0
250.0
200.0
Moderately
low Neutral Moderately
high High Very high
220.0 254.4
283.5 324.2
352.1 400.0
350.0
300.0
250.0
200.0
Moderately
low Neutral Moderately
high High Very high
