Female Bathhouse Patrons Charged 1,000 Won for Towel Rental... Human Rights Commission Rules "Gender Discrimination"

The National Human Rights Commission [Provided by Yonhap News TV]

The National Human Rights Commission has ruled that charging only female customers for towels at a bathhouse constitutes gender discrimination.

On the 2nd, the commission announced that in July, it recommended administrative guidance to the mayor of the jurisdiction where a bathhouse operated, for its discriminatory practice of providing two towels free of charge to male customers paying an admission fee of 9,000 won, while charging women an additional 1,000 won for towel rental.

This decision came after a customer who visited the establishment filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

The establishment argued to the commission that they had set the additional fee due to a low recovery rate of towels in the women's sauna, and that they had specified the paid towel service on their price list in accordance with the city's recommendation.

The city hall also stated that there were no legal grounds to penalize the bathhouse, as there were no regulations regarding price determination under the Public Health Management Act.

However, the Human Rights Commission stated, "The loss of towels is due to the actions of individual users, and applying disadvantageous conditions uniformly to an entire gender without statistical basis or empirical data raises concerns of generalization based on gender stereotypes."

The commission emphasized that local governments with jurisdiction should not overlook discriminatory fee structures simply because there is no legal basis.