By Chung Hyun-chae
Four out of 10 Korean women are paid low wages, according to OECD data.
The data showed that 37.8 percent of Korean female workers receive less than two-thirds of the median salary.
The figure is the highest among the 22 OECD member nations reviewed. Ireland came second with 31 percent who are underpaid.
About 30 percent of female workers are low-income earners in the United States, while 26.99 percent are in the United Kingdom, 25.94 in Germany and 25.52 percent in Japan.
Korea’s high rate of low-income female workers shows that many women are engaged in temporary or part-time jobs.
According to the data, low-income workers regardless of gender accounted for 23.7 percent of the total workers in Korea, which is the third-highest.
This situation mirrors circumstances under which women have difficulty continuing their career after marriage and childbirth and, even if they do, many of them get lower-paying jobs than before.
The proportion of economically active people aged 50 and over has surged here, but career choices for elderly women are limited.
This is why elderly women whose careers have been stalled cannot help choosing low-paying jobs, including jobs requiring simple skills or manual labor.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government statistics, the ratio of the wage of female workers to that of male workers has decreased from 64.4 percent in 2012 to 64 percent in 2013, 63.1 percent in 2014 and 62.8 percent in 2015.
Male workers’ average monthly wage was estimated at 2.8 million won ($2,487) in 2015.
Recognizing the gravity of the issue, the government announced measures to tackle the problem in April.
The measures included a plan to ease the burden on companies that hire women whose careers have been interrupted.
“Creating unstable, low-paying jobs or part-time work is not effective,” a researcher of the Korea Labor Institute said. “It is crucial to create an environment where highly-educated women are able to re-enter the job market after a career break.”