By Yi Whan-woo
One in four full-time employees in Korea is a low-wage worker, the highest ratio among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a report said Thursday.
The ratio of low-paid workers in the nation stood at 25.9 percent in 2010, up from 25.7 percent in 2009, according to the OECD's annual report outlook on employment.
The country had the highest ratio for second consecutive year among the 34 OECD member countries, of which the average was 16.3 percent in 2010.
Belgium recorded the lowest level of 4 percent. Finland at 8.1 percent, Portugal (8.9), Switzerland (9.2) and Italy (9.5) also had comparably low rates.
The United States and Canada, on other hand, had relatively high rates at 25.3 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively.
Low-wage workers are full-time employees who earn less than two thirds of the median wage. The minimum wage and regular payment by employers are key criteria in determining how many low-paid workers a nation has and Korea has problems in both areas, according to labor experts.
The minimum wage in 2010 was 4,110 won ($3.59) per hour, which was 41 percent of the median hourly payment of full-time workers in the country at that time.
And 2,077 of the 23,760 firms across the country last year failed to pay wages on a regular basis to their employees, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
“That suggests about one in 10 firms are negligent in paying their workers on time. And as long as we fail to solve such a problem, we'll continue to be discredited among the OECD countries,” a ministry official said.
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the nation's two largest umbrella labor unions, called for a hike in the minimum wage. They also demanded that the government strictly enforce the minimum wage in order to solve the low-wage problem.
“Low-skilled workers such as housemaids and janitors are usually not eligible for the minimum wage. So the authorities should allow such workers to benefit from it,” a unionist said.
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