According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, for June to August this year regular workers averaged 4.052 million won a month, up 156,000 won (4%) from a year earlier. Irregular workers averaged 2.112 million won, up only 24,000 won (1.1%). The average for all wage earners was 3.305 million won, up 3.1%.

The gap was 1.94 million won, up 132,000 won from 1.808 million a year earlier. Irregular workers' pay fell to 52.1% of regular workers', from 53.6%, a drop of 1.5 percentage points. The paper said the gap has widened nine years in a row since 2018, and this year's increase is more than double last year's 60,000 won.

The gap grew even without part-timers

Excluding part-time workers, irregular workers averaged 3.098 million won, still 954,000 won below regular workers, again a record. The National Data Office reportedly attributed the widening partly to the growth in irregular workers aged 60 and over.

There were 8.671 million irregular workers in August, up 103,000 from a year earlier, making up 38.5% of all wage earners, up 0.3 percentage point and the highest since the series began in 2003. Those aged 60 and over were the largest group at 3.18 million, up 135,000 in a year, more than the overall increase. Health and social welfare and accommodation and food service saw the biggest rises.

Social insurance coverage also slipped

Irregular workers' National Pension coverage was 36.5%, down 0.6 percentage point, and health insurance coverage 53.0%, down 0.2 point. Over the same period coverage for all wage earners edged up for health insurance (79.3%) and employment insurance (77.0%), so the divide extends from pay to the safety net. These are simple averages, and differences in age, tenure and working hours should be kept in mind.