This study clarifies how the issues of gender wage gap and disparity by employment types are related, yet separated. Given the high percentage of nonstandard employment in the Japanese labor market and a high concentration of women in nonstandard employment, the inclusion of nonstandard employment is indispensable when evaluating the gender gap. Nonstandard employment has increased significantly since the 1980s, when the Equal Employment Opportunity Law prohibiting gender descrimination was enacted. One of the reasons for the rapid increase in nonstandard employment was “course-based HR management,” which justifies different treatment for employees in different courese. Thus, the gender wage gap has been justified allocation to different HR courses. However, the distinction between standard and nonstandard employment is unclear in terms of work conditions and job contents. Nonstandard employment is defined according to how workers are designated in the workplace rather than by objective criteria such as working hours or length of contract terms. Although some studies have criticized the ambiguity of the nonstandard employment category, most studies takes the category for granted, inadvertently reinforcing the status quo including significant wage disparities. Thus, we need to reconcile the dichotomous views on these two categories, that is the assumption that standard/nonstandard employees are different in terms of job contents and skills and should be treated separately, through empirical research to ensure workplace equity.
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