Korean Women’s Income Equals 61 Pct. of Men’s

Women workers in Korea earned 61 percent of what men did in 2005, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Korea National Statistical Office said yesterday.

The median income of Korean women saw the largest gap among 20 OECD member nations having similar statistical data.

New Zealand had the narrowest gap among the 20 nations, as women there earned 91 percent of what men did. Other countries with high-income parity were France (89 percent), Poland (89 percent) and Denmark (88 percent).

Korea and Japan (69 percent) were the only two of the 20 countries whose women’s income parity failed to reach 70 percent.

Kim Yong-seong, a research fellow at the Korea Development Institute, said Korean women earn less than men since more women are hired as temporary and irregular workers.

“The gender income gap has widened since many Korean women quit their jobs due to childrearing and birth,” he said.

A worker who stays at a firm can expect salary raises as time goes by, but many Korean women stop working when they give birth, thus missing out on the higher pay.

ksch@donga.com