Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women

Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women English Research Paper - 11 Jongsoog Kim Seon-Mee Shin

Contents

1 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women 1. Summary of the Results The purposes of this study are to look into problems related to working poor women from the viewpoint of the labor market and to explore ways to formulate required policies. In order to draw up policy tasks aimed at resolving poverty as problems of employment, those who are aged 15 to 54 - the working age - and whose income is less than 60% of the median of the equivalized household income are defined as the relatively poor population, and their characteristics and the status of the labor market have been intensively analyzed. The 1st to 5th year data of the Korea Welfare Panel Study collected by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Seoul National University have been used for the analysis. This study has focused on gender-related characteristics - which were not examined by previous studies that focused on households - to assess the scale of women s poverty and then analyzed the distribution and changes in working poor women. Based on the analysis of how government s employment support policies are affecting employment and the efforts to combat poverty, implications on desirable directions and details of government policies aimed at alleviating women s poverty will be provided. Also, this study aims to derive policy alternatives based on the characteristics and

2 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women problems of younger generations and those in the prime of their lives. A. Deepening poverty among women 1) The number of working poor women When the numbers of poor male and female household heads are estimated based on the relative poverty line threshold - less than 60% of the median equivalized household income - the number of relatively poor female household heads increased by about 228,000 from 1,616,004 in 2005 to 1,844,008 in 2009, while that of poor male household heads decreased by about 358,000 from 2,746,044 in 2005 to 2,388,657 in 2009. In 2009, relatively poor female household heads accounted for 51.6% of the whole female household heads, while relatively poor male household heads made up 17.9% of the whole male household heads, indicating that the poverty status of households with female household heads is very serious. When the number of poor household heads is estimated with a subject group of men and women aged below 55 - the working-age group - relatively poor female household heads accounted for 30.2% of the total female households heads, while the figure for male household heads was only 10%, suggesting that there is a huge gender gap also in the essential working-age group. When it came to household members, the numbers of women and men aged 15 or above who were members of households with incomes below 60% of the median income decreased to 4,162,764 and 3,499,899, respectively, in 2009. The numbers of women and men aged 15 to 54 who were members of households with incomes

3 below 60% of the median income were 1,761,675 and 1,889,560, respectively in 2009 - the number of such men was higher than that of women. When compared with the recipients of the National Basic Livelihood Security System, more women were living in absolute poverty than men, while more men were living in relative poverty than women, among the essential working-age group. 2) Economic activities When it came to economic activities of household heads, as high as about 60% of poor female household heads were employed, while 30% of them were not economically active. On the contrary, about 90% of the women living above the poverty line were employed, while less than 10% of them were not economically active. These figures indicate that employed female household heads are relatively more likely to live above the poverty line. The urgent problem facing poor female household heads was that since the unemployment rate was very high, a high proportion of them were unemployed, although they engaged in job-seeking activities. Also, their employment status continuously deteriorated. Comparison of employment types among female household heads aged below 55 indicate that the proportion of regular workers dramatically decreased each year among both poor and non-poor female household heads. In particular, the proportion of regular workers among poor female household heads dropped from about 25% in the second year of the data to 16.7% in the fifth year. The proportion of temporary workers and self-employed people rose each year, with the proportion of daily laborers soaring among poor employed female household heads.

4 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women When it came to business types, the proportion of those engaged in the lodging or restaurant industry was very high among employed poor female household heads aged below 55, and recently the proportion of those engaged in the wholesale and retail industry surged. On the contrary, the proportion of those engaged in the lodging, restaurant, or wholesale and retail industry declined each year among non-poor women, indicating that poor female household heads are mostly engaged in low value-added areas. About 57% of poor economically-active female household heads did not have unemployment insurance. The proportion of those with unemployment insurance remained 24% (in the fifth year), and although the figure slightly rose recently, and there were no significant changes during the five-year observation period. On the contrary, 26.4% of non-poor female household heads did not have unemployment insurance. The figure declined each year during the five-year period and the proportion of those with the insurance increased each year. These figures indicate that poor women - even employed ones - are still excluded from social insurance programs and the government s efforts to remove blind spots have not percolated to the poor yet. Also, according to the analysis of all poor individuals, about 50% of poor men were employed, while about 40% of poor women - less than men - were employed. However, the gap is smaller than the gap between the proportions of employed men and women among all individuals. Also, the analysis indicates that the labor market conditions for poor women were highly volatile, and the proportions of temporary workers and daily laborers were much higher among women.

5 When it came to the status of working poor people s obtainment of unemployment insurance, the proportions of men who had unemployment insurance and who were in the blind spot of the system - wherein insurance does not apply - were 27.4% and 28.8%, respectively, in the fifth year. On the contrary, 24% of women were in the blind spot of the system, while 54% of women were in the blind spot of the application of the system and did not obtain the insurance. In the essential working-age group, the number of women who were able to work was higher than that of men, while the number of employed women was lower than that of employed men, indicating that it is necessary to formulate more policies aimed at providing support for poor working-age women. When it came to reasons why poor men and women who were able to work were not economically active, women cited housework, learning, and child-rearing as reasons in the fifth year. On the contrary, a high proportion of men did not want to have a job or gave up looking for jobs, indicating that there were huge differences between genders in terms of not being economically active. The proportion of women who did not want to have a job was only around in the level of 10%, indicating that although women mostly wanted to have a job, they still faced many obstacles in finding one. In particular, the burden of child-rearing and housework is increasingly becoming heavier and the situation is related to the expansion of poverty among young people.

6 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women B. Effects of Active Labor Market Policies This section has analyzed the effects of government s policies aimed at helping find jobs on supporting working-poor people through employment and poverty alleviation through a differencein-difference model. According to the analysis, the effects of policies aimed at helping find jobs were generally more positive among women than among men, indicating that policies aimed at helping working poor people find jobs need to put more focus on women. This analysis result is consistent with the analysis result in the previous section that women are willing to find jobs. However, when it came to effects of employment on the status of poverty, women showed no significant difference compared with men, which is also consistent with the results of previous studies, indicating that employment cannot serve as a critical tool through which people can escape from poverty, due to the characteristics of jobs that low-income people mostly have. When it came to the effects of government policies on finding jobs, the difference-in-difference was very significant, indicating that the effects of policies on finding jobs are very large. Employment consistently showed statistically significant effects on changing the status of poverty, indicating that policies aimed at helping poor people find jobs are very important. However, the difference-in-difference effects of employment, as well as the effects of policies aimed at helping find jobs, on changing the status of poverty were relatively insignificant. It would be hard to say that policies aimed at finding jobs obviously allowed more people to find jobs and in turn alleviated poverty - the phased goals of the policies - and there was no significant difference

7 between genders. Since conditions in labor markets as well as relevant policies and systems are very important in translating policy achievements into poverty alleviation, it is necessary to more closely assess the employment status of poor people and to formulate detailed policies tailored for their characteristics in order to strengthen the connection between employment and poverty alleviation. At the same time, according to the analysis, there are quite a few factors affecting the process in which policy achievements are translated into poverty alleviation; it is necessary to carry out careful case management for the factors affecting poverty as well as various environments facing poor groups. C. Poverty by Generation 1) The number of the poor by generation Currently, the government s poverty policies are divided according to life cycle in order to consider the characteristics of the people who should benefit from policies. In detail, policies are categorized into pregnancy and childbirth, infant care, children and adolescents, and elderly people, lacking categorization for working-age low-income people. In order for welfare policies to be established as workfare policies, more interest and support need to be directed toward working-age people. This study has focused on the essential working-age group - including younger generations ranging from those who had just passed adolescence. In order to draw up group-specific policy tasks, the group has been divided into younger generations aged 15 to 34

8 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women and people in the prime of their lives - aged 35 to 54 - and their characteristics have been analyzed. According to the analysis, 14.2% (1.759 million) of the younger generation were relatively poor - those whose income was below 60% of the median income - and 15.4% (2.246 million) of those in the prime of their lives were relatively poor. Among women aged 15 to 34, the proportion of relatively poor people was 13.2% (880,000), which was lower than the proportion among men (15.3%). On the contrary, among women in the prime of their lives, the proportion of relatively poor people was 16.6% (1.19 million), higher than the proportion among men (14.1%), and the proportion of relatively poor people increased in proportion to the age. During the five-year observation period, 28% of the younger generations experienced poverty at least once, and the gap between genders was almost 0.5%p. Also, 31.4% of the people in the prime of their lives experienced poverty at least once during the same period, and the gender gap was higher, 3%p. These results indicate that relative poverty is not confined in specific groups, that the possibility to experience poverty grows in proportion to age, and that women are more prone to do so. 2) Problems The most evident problem facing poor young people is that they are not highly educated. In particular, poor young women are more poorly educated than not only the whole non-poor younger generations but also poor young men, which makes it necessary to formulate policies aimed at educating younger generations as poverty-alleviation policies.

9 When it came to poor young women of poor younger generations, educational background was closely related to the possibility of finding jobs, which makes it necessary to strengthen the education-employment implementation policy targeting poor young women. The more serious problem facing younger generations - although both younger generations and those in the prime of their lives face it - is unemployment. The labor force participation rate among non-school-age poor young women was 47.3%, higher than the percentage among non-school-age, non-poor young women (56.5%), and the unemployment rate among them was very high, 31.8%. The unemployment rate among men aged 35 to 54 was the highest at 16%, among people in the age group, while the unemployment rate among poor women aged 35 to 54 stood at a very high level of 14.7%, indicating that the most serious problem was that they couldn t work even though they wanted to, due to unemployment. Also, the employment status of even employed women was insecure, which was a serious problem. As low as only 29.5% of employed poor women were regular workers, and the average annual earned income of even regular female workers was KRW 7.266 million, which is only 27.8% of that of non-poor male regular workers. The proportion of regular workers among employed poor women aged 35 to 54 was only 10.7%, lower than that of the younger generations, and the average annual earned income of even regular female workers aged 35 to 54 was only KRW 6.607 million, which was lower than that of poor young women and was only 17.3% of the average earned income of non-poor male regular workers, indicating that the poverty status among women worsens

10 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women among people in the prime of their lives. The cause of these poor conditions lies in the fact that a high proportion of women were employed by small businesses. 61.7% of employed poor young women were employed by small businesses with less than 30 employees, while 82.6% of poor female workers aged 35 to 54 were employed by small businesses with less than 30 employees. Given that the poor working conditions existing in the employment structure of Korea are mostly caused by the size of the business, it is particularly necessary to formulate policies to provide support for the employment structure of small businesses in order to improve the employment status of vulnerable workers. Due to the insecure employment status and employment at small businesses, many of them are in the blind spot of the social insurance. Only, 11.8% of non-school-age poor young women had unemployment insurance and the proportion among such women aged 35 to 54 was only 15.7%. These poor conditions indicate that younger generations are likely to be excluded from maternity protection as well as unemployment benefits and vocational training and that there is no well-established social safety net for women in the prime of their lives facing employment insecurity to fall back on. 2. Implications and Policy Suggestions A. Expansion of labor market policies aimed at eliminating poverty among women Although the demand for income distribution and welfare was expanding, detailed information on poor women, the most vulnerable

11 class, as well as understanding of their characteristics, was insufficient. The study results have allowed us to recognize the seriousness of the problems facing working poor people. It is necessary to direct the social attention to not only the prevalence of poverty among elderly people but also across all working-age groups through policies for the labor market. On top of poor elderly people, who make up the majority of the absolutely poor population, the poverty incidence among working-age women has been continuously growing. In particular, poverty among households with female household heads is very serious, and female household heads aged below 55 are increasingly becoming poor at an alarming rate. It is absolutely necessary to provide comprehensive support for them because they may have various welfare needs including employment support. While the number of male household heads is overwhelmingly higher than the number of female household heads, the proportion of relatively poor female household heads is three times that of relatively poor male household heads. When it comes to age, relatively poor people are evenly distributed across the whole age groups including younger generations and those in the prime of their lives. The proportion of women is very high among the groups that are poor due to the poverty of both household heads and household members, and it is necessary to accurately understand their characteristics and provide the necessary support. What matters the most for poverty alleviation through employment is to understand the characteristics and needs of the people living in poverty and thereby provide effective support policies (Seok Sang-hoon, 2011). In particular, working-age poor women face

12 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women various difficulties in terms of their employment and taking care of their family. Thus, it is necessary to carry out integrated case management and provide support for such needs. 1) Specifying Targets According to the results of the difference-in-difference analysis of the poverty alleviation effects of employment, employment has statistically quite significant effects on escaping from poverty when policy subjects and periods are restricted under certain conditions; but employment has no significant effects on preventing people from becoming impoverished. While specific groups living below the poverty line may escape from poverty after finding jobs, the effects of finding jobs on preventing non-poor people from becoming poor are not evident. These results indicate that if the characteristics of specific policy subjects are obvious, the policy can make obvious achievements. Government policies can make intended achievements when policy subjects are clearly defined, and actual and continuous support is provided for them. Thus, it is necessary to clearly define the scale and characteristics of policy subjects in the formulation of employment support policies for the poor, and the goals of the policies aimed at lifting them out of poverty need to be different from general employment support policies. Compared with men, employment support policies are much more effective in helping women find jobs. In order to improve the effects of such policies in helping find jobs, it is necessary to strengthen the support for women in the first place.

13 2) Program Integration and individualized case management When it comes to the labor market policies for the poor, it would be more effective to provide the same policies as existing subject-specific labor market policies and strengthen their case management, when support is provided for their transition to the general labor market. Recently, employment support services are expanded to cover not only the poor but also the general public, and the difference-in-difference analysis results of this study also indicate that the gap between the experimental and comparative groups is narrowing. Also, the provision of an integrated program is more desirable because it can provide support for the transition of the poor to the general labor market rather than provide support for protected labor like before. Although the policies aimed at helping people find jobs generally have significant effects on increasing the possibility of finding jobs, they showed quite different results for poverty alleviation depending on the period. That is, there are other factors affecting the process in which such policies achieve poverty alleviation by helping people find jobs. In other words, when it comes to the policies aimed at helping the poor find jobs, support for finding jobs is the primary achievement; and it is necessary to carry out management of individual cases in addition to such policies in order to achieve poverty alleviation. For instance, while details of employment support services such as Employment Success Package, New Job for Women Project and Youth Employment Service Program are similar, they target different subjects. Any program can provide similar policy-based services to poor women or poor young people, but the difference lies in

14 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women whether employment success benefits are provided. However, the primary goal of the policies provided for the poor is to lift them out of poverty and that of the policies provided for the general public is a transition to employment. That is, in order to achieve the intended goals of the policies provided for the poor, it is necessary to monitor the process in which they endeavor to find jobs and help them escape from poverty. Thus, it is necessary to set up a system to manage connection with other support policies and carry out strengthened case management while general employment support policies are being provided. Also, the need for case management lies in the fact that a number of employment support programs are run through consignment management. As issues are raised over creaming (training institutions select jobless people with high potentials for being employed after training) and parking (training institutions exclude those with little potentials for being employed from training), those who desperately need jobs are placed in the blind spot in reality (Chae Chang-gyoon et al., 2010). Since women are highly likely to face these disadvantages, it is highly necessary to execute women-specific projects and carry out case management for them. B. Policies for the poor young women Analysis of poor young people indicate that the possibility of them becoming poor and unemployment rate matter the most to them. Although it is known that employment prevents them from becoming poor, 28% of the younger generations experienced poverty during the observation period. The development tasks for those aged 34 or below include successful completion of training required for having

15 jobs, economic independence by getting work, and independence from parents. Non-school-age poor young women were not highly educated; only 47.3% of them were economically active; and the unemployment rate among those who were economically active was 32%. Also, the poverty rate of the household members of young female household heads was 23.0%, which was much higher than the poverty rate (13.2%) among young women aged 34 or below in whole (1st year of the Korea Welfare Panel Study, in 2005). These educational and economic conditions facing non-school-age poor young women are much worse than the conditions facing non-poor young people and poor young men of non-school-age people, and they need policy-based support. 1) Data Collection of the poor young women The poverty policies in Korea mostly focus on individual households; the status of poverty among young individuals is not sufficiently examined. Statistical data that need to be urgently produced include the status of the primary, secondary, and tertiary education of the poor, status of their transition to having a job, and the status of participation in life-long education including vocational training. In Korea, educational statistics do not include statistical data on educational equality among different social classes. Since the demand for educational welfare policies is expected to grow, it is necessary to produce the required statistics. Policies can be executed when there is accurate assessment of relevant status and required statistics are provided. Since some educational statistics are produced through surveys of relevant educational institutions rather than surveys of individuals, it is necessary that each institutional collect

16 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women statistical data on the poor. Data on poor younger generations transition to having a job and the status of their economic activities can hardly be produced through relevant existing statistical surveys. Relevant statistical data include Employment Statistics Surveys of Graduates of Higher Educational Institution produced by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korean Educational Development Institute; Additional Surveys of the Younger Generations in the Surveys of Economically Active Populations produced by the Statistics Korea; and Youth Panel Survey, Occupational Mobility Survey of College Graduates and High School Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey of the Korea Employment Information Service, all of which don t have enough samples of poor young men to carry out in-depth analysis. The statistics of vocational training supported by the government produced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor can hardly assess the status of the participation of the poor in economic activities. Although the Korea Welfare Panel Study that this study has used to analyze poor young people has 1,060 samples (539 men and 521 women) of young poor men aged 15 to 34, which is the largest sample, it is hard to fully analyze the status of their employment and education because the number of samples is too small if they are divided into school-age and non-school-age people. 2) Career development In 2005, 63% of non-school-age poor young women had a high school diploma or below, while 19% and 18% of them were junior college graduates and college graduates or above, respectively. Since

17 most of them were not highly educated, they faced obstacles in finding jobs. Since there is no relevant data, it is hard to examine the status of poor young women who earned a bachelor s degree after 2005. Since the restructuring of colleges and universities is underway and a policy aimed at expanding job opportunities for those with a high school diploma is recently being pushed, it is hard to give more opportunities for poor young women to get a college education. Nevertheless, it is necessary to provide support for them to get a college education and develop a suitable career. To this end, it is necessary to provide support for poor elementary, middle, and high school students to develop their career at an early stage and to maintain their educational achievement on a par with the average or above. The Education Welfare Priority Program is the most representative relevant policy that responds to the needs of all areas related to children and adolescents including culture, mentality, emotion, and welfare as well as enhancement of the educational achievement levels of the educationally marginalized and their learning. It is necessary to carry out studies on what support female students receive through these programs and why the proportion of female college graduates is low among poor students. The scholarship policy is the most widely used policy aimed at supporting poor college students. Since the number of poor young women who get a college education is less than the number of poor young men who do so, the number of female scholarship recipients would be lower. The maximum amount of a scholarship is KRW 4.5 million a year; those female students who cannot pay the tuition and bear the expenses required for other college education with that

18 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women amount of money are highly likely to give up their college education. In order to provide more opportunities of college education for poor female high school students by offering scholarships, it is necessary to examine a suitable amount of the scholarship for one person. Female students are likely to need larger amounts of scholarships than male students. It is necessary to provide support for career development for poor female college students, who have earned opportunities for college education despite many adversities, to prepare a successful start of their careers. Since most poor female college students lack the social capital required for finding jobs, it is necessary to make up for the insufficient social capital by providing 1:1 career development support programs, mentoring programs and information on their desired career paths. 3) Vocational/technical college-oriented education and employment support Poor young women are much more poorly-educated compared with non-poor young men. Their educational background and the burden of their livelihood cause them to enter the labor market earlier than their peers and rush to find jobs in a short period of time. The problem is that since they find menial jobs in a short period time, the security of their employment is not guaranteed or they are hired by very small businesses, which is more widespread among young women. While those selected as basic livelihood recipients can get a college education, those who are not selected can hardly get a college education ironically. Young working poor people who did not get a college education face an insecure status in the labor

19 market (Ban Jeong-ho, 2010). In order to help them get a required education, vocational or technical college education based on a solid cooperation between the industry and the academia can be a proper alternative. When they enter schools founded upon the cooperation between the industry and the academia, they should be exempted from paying tuition and receive allowances equivalent to vocational training allowances so that their schools help them connect with the labor market and find more secure jobs. 4) Integrated employment support and case management It is necessary to build a connection system that carries out case management for young people among various programs supporting the poor. The policy demands aimed at poverty alleviation among younger generations are much different from those among people in the prime of their lives. Although the current life-cycle welfare policies include policies targeting children and adolescents, there is no separate policy targeting young people who have just passed adolescence. Since the support provided by schools of poor young men for their transition to the labor market is closely related to the prevention of poverty afterwards, it is necessary to build a website aimed at introducing and supporting relevant policies in an integrated manner, assign managers in charge of case management, and develop integrated support menus. Specific and detailed policies aimed at combating poverty among younger generations are needed. The New Deal for Young People of the United Kingdom, which was put into practice in 1998, was

20 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women twofold: one program for those aged 18 to 24 and the other targeting those aged 25 or above. In Korea, the Employment Success Package is the most well-known project targeting young people, which is composed of a three-phase program. Subjects of the program include job-seekers, people not employed yet, and the unemployed. As the range of the subjects of the package expanded, the number of female participants surged in 2010, compared with 2009. Since the proportion of general applicants, household heads, women, 20-year-olds increased in the package project, it clearly showed that the differences between the aforementioned experimental group and the whole group were narrowing (Jeon Byung-yoo et al., 2010). Since the package project is becoming a sort of general employment support program that encompasses the general public, monitoring of whether policies are making achievements in terms of poverty alleviation among poor young people - the most essential policy subjects - is as important as the expansion of policies. It is also necessary to make sure that the transition of poor young people to the labor market leads to more secure jobs in such ways as allowing poor young people to participate in My Job Academy and Young Men Experiencing Jobs programs supported by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on a preferential basis. C. Policies for on the poor women in the prime of their lives Those in the prime of their lives, among poor groups, are exposed to the highest degree of risk. Although poverty rates decline among younger generations, it grows again among the middle-aged and

21 those in the prime of their lives. Among this group of people, the gap between genders is larger than that among young people. Due to their age, they have various characteristics and needs. First, it is more necessary than ever to provide employment support services for middle-aged women and women in the prime of their lives. Second, it is necessary to formulate policies aimed at resolving the problems caused by the poor conditions of employment. Third, support needs to be provided to manage the balance between work and child-rearing. Since this age group may have many demands over the support for female household heads and child-rearing by one parent, the provision of support for poor women is a very important tasks in the whole social policies. Fourth, it is necessary to strengthen policies aimed at creating jobs in social service sectors targeting middle-aged women and women in the prime of their lives and to build longitudinal information on the progress of implementation after providing policies to them, because this enables the acquisition of feedback on policies on the transition from poverty among middle-aged women and women in the primes of their lives to poverty among elderly women. 1) employment support service Employment support services targeting women in Korea include, on a broad term, New Job Project aimed at supporting women who have their career interrupted, as well as Employment Success Package and Hope Ribbon Project where poor women can participate. The Hope Ribbon Project, which is a program that provides protected employment, poses a problem on excessive dependence on the project.

22 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women In order to alleviate poverty, it would be more desirable to strengthen programs that provides support through general labor markets. That is, while it is necessary to direct the focus of the Employment Success Package and New Job Project, targeting people not employed toward poor people, it would be more desirable to provide general employment support programs for the poor and strengthen their case management rather than provide poor people-specific programs, as was mentioned above. Currently, the Employment Success Package is the only employment support service tailored to poor women in the prime of their lives. However, general 20-year-olds have recently become its primary beneficiaries; it is hard to consider the human capital, job experience, and household conditions of poor women. Also, 17% of the women who use the New Job Center - Saeil Center - are presumed to be poor people, indicating that while employment support services targeting poor women are provided through various channels, there is no case management for them. It is necessary to strengthen case management so that support can be provided for poor women in terms of employment and poverty alleviation. Also, the scale of general employment support programs needs to be expanded to provide more benefits to poor women and they should be given priority in benefiting from such programs. 2) Improvement of labor conditions for poor female workers Employment did not have significant effects on poor female workers escaping from poverty, because the quality of their jobs was not good enough to help them rise above poverty or prevent them from becoming impoverished. In this regard, it is necessary to

23 greatly strengthen the connection between poverty policies and employment policies. Although the current minimum wage system, non-regular worker policies and social insurance systems have their own purposes, low-income people are affected by them to the greatest extent; it is necessary to accept the viewpoints of poverty policies in the application of such systems to consider the conditions facing poor women, especially. The Doorinoori Social Insurance system is aimed at eliminating blind spots of the Unemployment Insurance and the National Pension Service, which is expected to have larger effects on poor middle-aged poor women and women in the prime of their lives. The system applies to workers whose monthly wage is in the range from KRW 350,000 to 1.25 million and who are employed at businesses with less than 10 employees; according to this study, many poor middle-aged women and women in the prime of their lives will be able to benefit from the system, given their average wage. However, since daily laborers and housekeepers who are in the blind spot of the social insurance system cannot benefit from the system and they account for slightly more than 35% of the whole workers, it is necessary to make sure that all eligible people benefit from the system and then to draw up ways to provide the social insurance service applied to construction workers - which is dubbed a card system. Raising the minimum wage to a reasonable level is also very important. However, since - in the short term - the proportion of female workers who get less than the minimum wage - due to non-compliance with the system - is much higher than the

24 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women proportion of male workers who receive less than the minimum wage, it is urgently necessary to monitor the compliance with the system in areas where many women are employed. If non-regular worker policies maintain their current focus directed toward the resolution of discrimination such as in-house subcontract improvement, problems related to employing women as non-regular workers in areas where many women are employed, as well as deterioration of working conditions in such areas can be excluded from non-regular worker policies. It is necessary to seek out poor non-regular workers and formulate policies aimed at resolving their insecure employment and making up for their low income. 3) Balancing work and life for the poor women According to the aforementioned analysis, poverty among 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds was very serious, and 34.2% and 15.8% of the poor women who were not economically active cited housework and child-rearing, respectively, as their reasons for not being economically active, which differ from the reasons of poor men for not being economically active. When it comes to women, housework and child-rearing are very critical reasons for not being economically active, and poor women are no exceptions; even though they want to work, they cannot hold a job due to such obstacles. Although life-work balance is very important for women, only 10% of the poor women aged 35 to 54 with insecure employment status are regular workers; they are highly likely to be placed in the blind spots of employment welfare as well as in the blind spots of maternity protection and parental leave.

25 In particular, female household heads - compared with male household heads - face limitations caused by insufficient income, time and information, and division of labor between genders within households is impossible; it is necessary to carry out case management for these jeopardous groups of people. Separate management systems need to be established to meet the needs of poor women; a one-stop support system should be provided to connect welfare, employment and education policies such as current child-rearing, caring, income support and employment support policies. Currently, female household head support policies include policies that set priorities of individual employment support policies such as the unemployment policy (Ministry of Employment and Labor) as well as the business foundation policy targeting female household heads (Small and Medium Business Administration) and one-parent family self-reliance support policy (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family). Since these policies are not pushed in an integrated manner and individuals apply for each project - which is a problem because it is a policy supplier-oriented support system - it is necessary to improve the system. For instance, in the US, employment support for one parent service is provided through a separate institution rather than unemployment institutions (Carcillo & Grubb, 2006), which is an example of strengthening case management for each subject. At the same time, it is necessary to fully provide poor women with various services aimed at helping achieve work-life balance such as child-rearing support policies, provision of short-distance jobs, and flexible work hours.

26 Ten Years of the National Basic Livelihood Security System and Working Poor Women 4) Creation of social service jobs According to the complete revision version of the Framework Act on Social Security pushed at the end of 2011, social welfare policies shifted from income security policies to income and social service security policies. Changes in law and system-related environments can bring about different policy effects among various classes of people; the enforcement of the act can result in major changes in the employment of women who have been the main suppliers of social services. Expansion of social services can have positive effects on the jobs of vulnerable groups engaged in social service sectors, especially women. While previous social service jobs were based on temporary job creation projects targeting vulnerable people and had limitations in helping participants overcome their vulnerability in the long-term, the expanded social service will play a critical role in the national welfare policy, fully providing support for poverty alleviation and prevention. Accordingly, it is necessary to create new projects that help women actively participate in social service jobs within the legal boundary encompassing various economic activities such as social enterprises or cooperatives specified in the Framework Act on Cooperatives. The focus of relevant policies should be shifted from existing progress- or protective-type projects such as Hope Work and Steppingstone Work projects to public service and general labor markets, and it is necessary to revitalize social service job creation projects in the health and welfare areas in local communities, including after-school programs and various voucher projects led by women.

27 5) Longitudinal data collection Poverty among middle-aged women and women in the prime of their lives is very important because they are highly likely to be poor in their old age. Establishment of a stable economic foundation during the period is very critical in the prevention of poverty among elderly women, which makes them very important subject groups in terms of individuals and national social security policies. There is little detailed data on poverty incidence among the group. Although oversampling of poor groups is carried out through the Korea Welfare Panel Study, etc., the number of samples is insufficient for building detailed information on their working status and household finances. Case management data need to be built in a longitudinal way when supplying policies for poor middle-aged women and poor women in the prime of their lives or near-poverty groups; results of the survey of the status of these people need to be incorporated in project result reports to observe changes, and the results need to be incorporated into policy evaluation to build a feedback system.