Song Hye Kyo is paid less than Song Joong Ki, is Kim Soo Hyun sexist?

Industry experts have revealed their insights into the pay gap between Korean actors and actresses, garnering great attention. This partly shows that the land of Kimchi is favoring men over women?

Contrary to the country of billions of people, if female stars are favored over male stars or the salary of female stars is slightly better, in the land of Kimchi, it is somewhat opposite. This can be seen as a sad fact in Korean showbiz when male actors are paid significantly higher salaries than female actors.

In fact, Korea is ranked 1st among OECD countries in terms of "Gender pay gap" with a gap of 34.1%. According to the Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, the average income of Korean women in August 2019 was 2.02 million won/month, while the average income of Korean men was 3. 15 million won/month. If calculated based on the general income of employees, women earn 2.66 million won/month, while men earn 3.69 million won/month. In addition, the percentage of women receiving wages lower than the legal minimum wage accounts for 50.8%.

According to the sales reports of the top 20 companies, men's salaries are 50% higher than women's, and in the top 600 Korean companies, women make up only 22% of the total staff.

In addition, there have been cases where male actors were paid five times more than female co-stars, according to an article on Wikitree.

In the Korean entertainment industry, it's hard to find a top actress earning more than 100 million won per episode. Meanwhile, the average salary of A-list male stars has reached 200 million won/episode, double that of female actors.

Take Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki as an example. Song Hye Kyo has been in the profession longer than Song Joong Ki and has appeared in more famous works. However, the actress's current salary is still significantly lower than that of her ex-husband. Compared to Kim Soo Hyun, who boasts the highest appearance pay, Song Hye Kyo seems to be even worse.

This stark gap was pointed out by reporter Ahn Jin Yong from Munhwa Ilbo, who delved into the topic in a video about the payments of Korean actors and actresses in 2023.

According to the media, the great success of "The Glory" has helped Song Hye Kyo become one of the highest paid actresses in the Korean entertainment industry with a salary of 200 million won (more than 3.5 billion won). ) per episode for her role in "The Glory".

Meanwhile, the producer of " Vincenzo " spent 300 million won (more than 5.3 billion) per episode to recruit Song Joong Ki. As for Kim Soo Hyun, the actor was paid up to 500 million won (over 8.9 billion) per episode for his appearance in "An Ordinary Day". He also emphasized that usually "actresses receive less than actors".

Many male stars receive sky-high salaries, Kim Soo Hyun is one of them.

According to an entertainment industry insider, the salary difference comes from the content of the script and the actor's greed. Many scripts nowadays focus more on the male lead than on the female lead. This results in male actors getting paid more when they take on more important roles than their female counterparts in the same project.

Song Joong Ki received a salary of 300 million won to participate in the project "Vincenzo".

Moreover, the producers also consider the reputation of the stars. Historically, Korean male actors have been considered more influential, with a stronger international fan base than female actors, who are generally supported by the public. Therefore, dramas and movies are often easier to sell and make more profit if they have male actors who are loved by fans. Therefore, many producers favor the actor and are willing to spend huge amounts of money to invite them.

Of course, gender discrimination is also a possible factor in leading to such a large pay gap.

Song Hye Kyo lost the main role of The Glory, fortunately met the savior, Song Joong Ki was overjoyed? Keng10:44:20 22/03/2023The Glory is truly the hottest Korean film project in early 2022, marking Song Hye Kyo's bold transformation after many unsuccessful roles. Therefore, many viewers are looking forward to and want to know about the possibility that The Glory will continue to release part 3. In...