The male-female wage gap is wider in Korea than in any other OECD member country for over 10 years, and the gap is widening with time.
According to the organization, the wage disparity amounted to 37.4 percent as of the end of 2012, the highest among the 11 member countries that provided statistics. Korea was followed by Japan (26.5 percent), the United States (19.1 percent), Canada (18.8 percent), Britain (17.8 percent), Slovakia (16.0 percent), the Czech Republic (15.1 percent), Australia (13.8 percent), Hungary (11.3 percent), Norway (6.4 percent), and New Zealand (6.2 percent).
Korea has topped the list for 13 consecutive years since the statistics began to be compiled in 2000. The figure had reached 40.4 percent in 2000 and dropped by no more than 3.0 percentage points during the 13 years. Meanwhile, those of Japan and Britain declined by as much as 7.4 and 8.5 percentage points, respectively.
The OECD average fell from 19.2 percent to 14.8 percent between 2000 and 2011. However, Korea’s figure dropped from 40.4 percent to 37.5 percent during the same period. The wage disparity in Korea had been 2.1 times the OECD average in 2000, but increased to 2.5 times in 2011.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Employment and Labor recently announced that the average monthly wages of male and female workers were 2.664 million won (US$2,581) and 1.705 million won (US$1,655) each last year. The average was 112 million won (US$108,519) for male employees of Samsung Electronics and 73 million won (US$70,893) for their female counterparts. At Hyundai Motor Company, the average annual salaries of men and women were 95 million won (US$92,047) and 78 million won (US$75,723), respectively.