Korean men work longer that their counterparts in Spain and Switzerland, The Vancouver Sun reported.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the labour and employment ministry in South Korea released a data earlier this year, showing that South Koreans worked longer than their counterparts in thirty four industrialized countries.
The statistic showed that in July that the country has an average retirement age over 70 between the year 2007 and 2012, compared OECD with average an average of 64.3 during the same period.
The report showed that men in Korea work five years longer than their counterparts and the possible reason behind is that "Korean men are burdened with bread-winning even after retirement, with their preparations for old age insufficient in most cases," the Korean Labor Institute explained.
Hankyoreh newspaper said that the reason why South Koreans retire so late because of the "country's inadequate pension and welfare systems." Meaning, if they retire too early they wouldn't have enough money to sustain their needs in their old age. The magazine also noted the difference between Korea and the OECD members- Austria, Slovakia and Belgium- with the earliest retirement age at 59.
Data also showed that South Korean works longer hours yearly than those OECD counterparts with an average of 2,057 hours per year while OECD average of 1,734 hours each year.
For the women's retirement case, statistic also showed that one of the contributing factor that women retire late due to fertility issue. Chosun Ilbo said that the statistic showed that there is a dramatic increase from 1995. They said that in 1995 women had their first child at the age of 26 but last year, women had an average age of 30.7. While their neighbor country, Japan, the average age women have their first child is 30.4.
Just a small difference from the European countries like Spain, showing an average age of 28 in 1995 to 30 today.
