South Korea had the second-widest wage disparity among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2012, a researcher said Thursday.
The rate of low-income workers in South Korea came to 25.1 percent as of 2012, the second-highest among the OECD member states after the United States’ 25.3 percent, Jung Ee-hwan, a professor of the Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said during a workshop in Seoul.
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Low-income workers are considered those who earn less than two-thirds of the average income among full-time workers. The OECD average was 16.3 percent in 2012.
The workshop was held to mark the publication of the “2014 wage report” by the Economic and Social Development Commission, a trilateral body representing labor, management and the government.
Jung, a key author of the report, also said that South Korean full-time workers’ purchasing power parity (PPP)-adjusted real wages stood at US$36,354 in 2013, slightly higher than Italy ($34,561) and Japan ($35,405) and lower than France’s $40,242.
“These statistics are based on full-time workers’ total yearly wages, so we should consider that their work hours are not taken into account,” the professor said.
When based on hourly wages, South Korean workers’ wages were found to be lower than Italy and Japan because of the country’s long working hours, he claimed. (Yonhap)
