Madrasah as Muslim ‘cram school’? Ethnic minorities, religious education and Islamic knowledge

This paper examines the changes of Korean’s idea about just earnings since 2000. Based on the 2003 and 2009 KGSS datasets, the study analyzes how Korean’s perception about just earnings has changed. Further, we also explore the cross-national variations of individual’s idea about just earnings. For this purpose, it compares the idea about just earnings of Korean with that of other five countries: Japan, U.S., Russia, Philippines and Norway. More specifically, we examine how Korean’s perception about just earnings differs from that of other countries. To answer these two main questions, we use the Likert scale method. The results indicate that Korean’s idea about just earnings has been improved. This means that although the objective wage discrimination in Korea has been getting worse and worse since economic crisis in late 1990’s, paradoxically, Korean’s perception about just earnings has been getting better. Additionally, the cross-national comparing results show that Korean does not have much complaint about their wage discrimination in their society when compared with people in other countries. This paper also discusses about the reason for this interesting phenomenon, why Korean’s idea about just earnings has been improved rather than aggravated. In this study, we contend that Korean have been internalizing their unjust earnings and have taken it for granted. They tend to blame their lack of abilities or efforts for low wage instead of complaining about it. Consequently, they try to raise their working abilities by putting more times and efforts.