The job quality of Korean women still remains low compared to their male counterparts, although the female employment rate edged up slightly last year, data showed Monday.

Statistics Korea said in its compiled report that among all female employees, 40.3 percent were irregular workers as of March this year, while the figure for men stood at 25.5 percent.

In terms of salary, a female worker was paid an average 1.78 million won ($1,530) a month last year, 62.8 percent of that of men in the country.