The wage gap between men and women in South Korea recorded 39 percent, the highest among countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), showed a recent report.
The pay gap between Korean male and female workers stood at 39 percent in 2010, the highest level among 28 OECD members, according to the report released by the OECD and Korean Women`s Development Institute (KWDI) Friday. This means working women in Korea have earned 39 percent less than their male counterparts. The salary differential was 10 percentage points higher than 29 percent of Japan, who ranked second, and 2.6 times larger than the average 15 percent of the 28 OECD members.
It was followed by Germany, Israel (21 percent), the US, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Austria (19 percent), the UK, and the Czech Republic (18 percent).
Those who ranked at the bottom of the list were Hungary, Poland and Spain with six percent in gender wage gap. Other countries with low gender wage gaps were New Zealand (seven percent), Norway (eight percent), and Belgium (nine percent).
The salary inequality between Korean men and women decreased a meager one percentage point from 40 percent in 2000 to 39 percent in 2010. The gap of Japan, however, sharply dropped from 34 percent to 29 percent during the same period.
The large gap is attributable to a career break of Korean women who stop working after giving birth for childcare, said the KWDI.
[Written by Suk-woo Chung - Sun-ah Kim / edited by Soyoung Chung]
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