South Korea needed a word for what the powerful party in a contract does to the weak one.
In Korean contract law, the dominant party is called gap (갑), the first character in the alphabet of legal agreements, and the subordinate party is called eul (을). The suffix jil (질) means behavior, but carries a pejorative tone, implying something crude or abusive. Combined, gapjil (갑질) describes the actions of someone who exploits a position of power over someone who cannot push back.1
The term entered national discourse in December 2014, when Cho Hyun-ah, a vice president at Korean Air and daughter of the airline’s chairman, ordered a taxiing aircraft to return to the gate because a flight attendant had served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. The incident, which media labeled the "nut rage" scandal, became the most visible example of what the word described.2
South Korea’s economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol. Their boards are often controlled by family members and close associates, concentrating authority in ways that permit behavior the word gapjil was coined to name.3
A 2017 study by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea found that over 73 percent of respondents had experienced workplace harassment in the previous year, and a quarter reported experiencing it more than once a week.4 A civic organization called Workplace Gapjil 119 was established to operate a hotline for victims of office abuse.
In July 2019, South Korea enacted legislation making it a criminal offense to fire or demote workers who report workplace bullying. Violations carry penalties of up to three years in prison or a thirty-million-won fine.5
A 2023 survey by the Office for Government Policy Coordination found that 79.4 percent of two thousand adults considered gapjil a serious problem in Korean society. Over half said they had recently begun recognizing behaviors they once overlooked as gapjil.6