South Korea has the largest wage gap between native and foreign workers among the world's leading developed economies with high income, data showed Wednesday.

The 2015 employment outlook by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that South Korean employees get paid 1.55 times more than foreign-born workers on average.

It is the highest wage gap among OECD members that compile related data, which analysts said can be interpreted as a sign that South Korea remains less open to foreign workers.

Italy and Spain came in second and third, respectively, while the gap was the smallest for Poland, Japan and Austria.

On average, Italians get paid 1.32 times more than their counterparts from abroad, with the wage gap for Spain standing at 1.31 times.

In the case of Poland and Japan, foreigners actually got paid more, although the number of foreign workers in these two countries is too small to be assessed effectively.

The OECD said native-born workers generally receive 15.1 percent more in wages than foreign rivals, with the bulk of the difference being caused by a disparity in skill levels.

In the case of South Korea, the wage gap could fall noticeably if the difference in skill levels declines, it said.

A local labor market expert said that compared to most OECD countries, the South Korea market is unique because the country tends to bring in unskilled foreign workers.

"Other countries generally tend to only permit people with set skills into the country in an effort to augment their own shortages in certain areas, so there are naturally small differences in wages," said Lee Kyu-yong, a researcher at the Korea Labor Institute. (Yonhap)