Measuring earnings inequality and median earnings in the tourism industry

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to measure the degree of earnings inequality in tourism employees in South Korea, using the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve; and to examine the level of earnings based on median earnings. The results show that tourism generates a moderately equal distribu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tourism management (1982) Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 341 - 348
Main Authors: Lee, Choong-Ki, Kang, Seyoung
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.1998
ISSN:0261-5177, 1879-3193
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to measure the degree of earnings inequality in tourism employees in South Korea, using the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve; and to examine the level of earnings based on median earnings. The results show that tourism generates a moderately equal distribution of earnings. In general, tourism performs earnings distribution better than secondary and tertiary industries, but it performs poorly as compared with primary industry. The results also indicate that tourism is more likely to improve living standards for the lower income class than secondary and tertiary industries. The analysis of median earnings, however, indicates that tourism is a low wage industry. The labor-intensive nature of the tourism industry absorbing many unskilled and semi-skilled workers might be attributed to its low wage structure. It is interesting to note that tourism was found to be advantageous to female workers in terms of earnings inequality and the level of earnings.
ISSN:0261-5177
1879-3193
DOI:10.1016/S0261-5177(98)00033-8