Minimum Wage – Breaking the Bottleneck
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
The minimum wage is a tool and perhaps an institution to break through the bottle neck for the country to be on the trajectory of a high income economy and more importantly to secure basic rights of employees to make ends meet. It could never run contrary to any basic principles of democracy.
The minimum wage is not without with its attendant problems. But it is also not insurmountable as measures could be devised to provide fairness for all. The government must think through fast, bite the bullet and not make any more U-turns while giving more excuses.
This writer (Kuala Selangor) followed through the question raised by YB Klang (both Pakatan MPs) to insist on the government to commit to a minimum wage regime as to end the years of misery suffered by more than 40% of the work force.
Surely it could be tied-up and packaged with other parameters on productivity and performance. Creativity and innovation, the latest PM’s buzzword, may be required to put in place mutually rewarding solutions for both employers and employees. But dragging it this far and longer is both baffling and ‘criminal’. Period.
Read the response below to our questions in Parliament:
