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The wage gap between high and low income earners in Korea has widened to a point where those in the top 10 percent earn four-and-a-half times more than those in the bottom 10 percent. This puts Korea in third place among OECD member countries in terms of the wage gap.
According to "OECD Employment Outlook 2007" released by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the OECD, the wage of workers in the top 10 percent as of 2005 was 4.51 times greater than that of workers in the bottom decile. The gap has widened significantly from 1995, when the high income earners made 3.64 times more than those at the other end of the scale.
Among the 20 countries surveyed, Korea came third after Hungary and the United States which had a gap of 5.63 and 4.86 times respectively. Poland, Canada and Ireland came next, with the top decile earning 4.31, 3.74, and 3.57 times more than those in the bottom 10 percent.
Northern European countries had a smaller gap between the two income groups. In Norway, Sweden and Finland, the gap was below threefold, posting 2.21, 2.33 and 2.42 times.
As of 2005, 25.4 percent of Korean workers were categorized as "low income earners," meaning they earned two-thirds below the median wage. Korea had the largest percentage of low-income earners among 14 countries whose statistics were listed in the OECD report.
The U.S. (24 percent), Poland (23.5 percent), Canada (22.2 percent) and the U.K. (20.7 percent) also had over 20 percent of their population in the low income group. Sweden (6.4 percent), Finland (7 percent) and New Zealand (11.5 percent) had considerably fewer.
A government official attributed the results to differences in labor productivity. "Labor productivity has a direct influence on income. After Korea went through the economic crisis of the late 1990s, the labor productivity of large conglomerates and the manufacturing industry increased but it remained low in small and medium-sized companies and the service sector," the official said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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