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Korean manufacturing workers' wage raises for the past five years have outpaced all of their OECD counterparts, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO) yesterday.

Consequently, Korea's wage index, which measures wages against 1995 levels, rose to 136.6 as of April this year (1995 = 100), up from the 131.3 recorded for last year.

The figure also indicate that Korea's manufacturing sector increased wages at nearly double the pace of leading OECD nations, whose index figures ranged from 109 to 122 this year.

Japan's wage index this year rose to 109 from the 106 posted in 1999, the U.S. rose to 116 from 112, Canada to 110.2 from 106.4, Sweden to 119 from 117 and the Netherlands to 113.6 from the 111.5 posted last year.

Korea's wage index resumed its steady upward trend since last year, which was briefly interrupted by the financial crisis. Based on 1995 wages, the index rose over 12 percent to stand at 112.2 in 1996, 118 in 1997 before falling to 114.3 in 1998.

For the year, the index rose to 132 in January, soared to 143.7 in February, fell to 123.9 in March, before rising again to 136.6 in April, NSO figures showed.

Although this year's index figures have not yet been released for other OECD nations, the index figures also indicated a faster increment in wages than figures posted in Italy, whose index stood at 112.3 last year, 111 in Austria and 115.8 in Taiwan.

Also, the wage index figures in the manufacturing sector indicated an almost identical rise in minimum wage growth since 1995.

According to OECD figures, manufacturing sector wages for the past ten years average at 4 times minimum wages.

This year's minimum wage figures are up some 36.8 percent from 1995 levels according to the latest OECD figures. The OECD estimated minimum wages in Korea this year at 361,600 won a month and 1,600 won per hour.