Anchor: A new report has found that hourly earnings in South Korea amount to half of what can be earned in Germany when considering consumer prices and purchasing power. The report found that South Korea ranked 22nd out of the 33 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of hourly earnings and fourth in terms of labor market insecurity.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: Working people in South Korea, including those self-employed, are found to be earning roughly 18-thousand won an hour, roughly half of what those in Germany make.

A new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) on job quality based on data collected up to 2013 shows South Korea’s purchasing power parity(PPP)-adjusted gross hourly earnings amounted to 14-point-zero-six U.S. dollars, or some 18-thousand won.
 
The figure placed South Korea 22nd out of the OECD’s 33 members in terms of average earnings.
 
European countries, meanwhile, topped the hourly earnings list.
 
Luxembourg ranked first with its average hourly earnings standing at 35 dollars followed by the Netherlands. Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Germany’s gross hourly earnings all surpassed 30 dollars, or double that of South Korea's.
 
Mexico ranked at the very bottom of the list.

South Korea is analyzed to have ranked in the mid-to-low range in hourly earnings due to its long labor hours and relatively low productivity.
 
The OECD found that a person with a job in South Korea worked for two-thousand-124 hours on average as of 2014—the longest among OECD members after Mexico. Compared to Germany, which recorded the shortest labor hours, people in South Korea worked four more months in a year.
 
The hourly earnings were calculated based on consumer prices and exchange rates of respective countries.

The report also ranked the countries by labor market insecurity, in which South Korea came in fourth after Israel, the U.S. and Turkey.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.