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| The graph shows Korea's gender wage gap at 31.1 percent, the largest among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. Screenshot from the OECD website |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Korea again ranked top in the gender wage gap among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2021, an undesirable position it has been maintaining for over two decades since joining the group of high-income countries in 1996.
Recent data released by the OECD found that Korea's gender wage gap stood at 31.1 percent as of last year, the highest among the 38 member states, meaning that female workers earned 31.1 percent less than their male counterparts on average.
The OECD defines the gender pay gap as the difference between the median earnings of men and women relative to the median earnings of men.
Korea's figure is about 20 percentage points higher than the OECD average of 12 percent, and it is the only nation with a figure exceeding 30 percent. Korea has outpaced Israel and Japan, which came in at second and third places, respectively, with 24.3 percent and 22.1 percent.
Belgium was the country with the narrowest gender wage gap of 3.8 percent.
Among the G7 nations, the United States ranked sixth with 16.9 percent, followed by seventh-place Canada (16.7 percent). The United Kingdom came in at 10th place (14.3 percent) and Germany at 11th (14.2 percent) place. France and Italy's figures were lower than the OECD average, with 11.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
Although Korea has achieved remarkable economic growth in recent decades, Asia's fourth-largest economy has shown little improvement in the gender pay gap. Since joining the OECD in 1996, the country has retained the No. 1 position in the annual report for 26 consecutive years.
While some point out that the gender pay gap could exist because those employed in physically demanding and high paying jobs are mostly men, it is notable that Korean women still earn less than their male counterparts doing the same jobs, according to a recent study published in the British journal, Nature Human Behaviour.
The report released last month showed that the gender pay gap within jobs in Korea stood at 18.8 percent, ranking the country second among 15 countries surveyed, including Japan, Canada, Spain and the United States.
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