Will Oecd Data Help Park?

Park Geun-hye

Will the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data have any relevance for the 2012 presidential election?

The wealthy nations’ club said that Korean women suffered from the largest gender gap in wages among member countries.

This signifies that they are discriminated against but it is still a moot point whether or not women are inclined to vote for Park Geu-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party over Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party.

Park is the 60-year-old unmarried daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, and is fully playing the gender card. But the problem is that there is no significant evidence that women voters see Park as their savior.

According to a report by the OECD released Friday, Asia’s fourth-largest economy found its gender income gap to be 39 percent, the highest among the 28 surveyed member nations as of 2010. It means that Korean women are paid 39 percent less than their male counterparts. The average of OECD nations was 15 percent.

The gap in 2000 was 40 percent, also topping the OECD list at that time, meaning the disparity has barely narrowed over the past decade.

Japan came next with a gender wage gap of 29 percent, while Germany and Israel tied at third with 21 percent. The United States, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and Austria marked an income gap of 19 percent, according to the report.

The OECD data also showed that Hungary and Poland had the lowest gender pay gap of 6 percent each, followed by New Zealand with 7 percent, Norway with 8 percent and Belgium...