Disclosed are paper coating latex, a method for preparing the same, and paper coating composition containing the same, characterized in that in the paper coating latex having a core-shell structure, the core is formed by the polymerization of monomer mixtures comprising 5 to 10 weight parts of ethylene unsaturated acid based on 100 weight parts of the core, wherein the amount of ethylene unsaturated acid in the shell is less than that in the core, and the shell has glass transition temperature up to room temperature, lower than that of the core. The present invention has an effect of providing a high quality matte coated paper that has excellent printability such as ink drying rate, adhesion, etc., as well as low white paper gloss and improved print gloss by coating paper coating composition containing multi-layered paper coating latex having high swelling and contraction property on paper.