Minimum wage RM1,500 in July 2018 and now back to RM1,000
On 19th July 2018, Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister announced in Parliament that workers across the country can expect the minimum monthly wage to be set at RM1,500. Saying that the RM1,100 minimum wage is too high for some businesses, the human resources ministry revealed on 25th February 2019 that it is looking into more “relevant” basic salaries for different sectors.
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Raja Petra Kamarudin
RM1,500 soon to be the new minimum wage throughout Malaysia
(Human Resources Online, 20 Jul 2018) – Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran announced in Parliament yesterday (19 July), workers across the country can expect to see the minimum monthly wage to be set at RM1,500, as reported in The Sun Daily.
He said during a Question Time: “The increase of minimum wage to RM1,500 will be done gradually, not in an instant.”
“In the absence of any obstacle, the new Minimum Wage Order will be gazetted in a month or two,” he added.
The government has discussed the matter with the stakeholders, including workers’ unions, according to the report.
Kulasegaran said the review on the wages was made taking into account factors such as productivity growth rate, employers’ ability to pay the salaries and unemployment rate.
“The standardised wage is also to guarantee and protect job opportunities for the locals. If they are not (uninformed), then there will instances where employers would prefer taking foreigners as they could pay them at a lower rate,” he said.
The current minimum wage is RM1,000 for those in the Peninsular Malaysia and RM920 for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.
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Current minimum wage of RM1,100 too high for some sectors, says Kula
FMT, 25 Feb 2019) – Saying the RM1,100 minimum wage is too high for some businesses, the human resources ministry today revealed that it is looking into more “relevant” basic salaries for different sectors.
Its minister, M Kulasegaran, said this meant that there would be minimum wages for such sectors as plantations, hotels or coffee shops.
He said the matter needed more study before it was brought to the Cabinet for consideration.
Earlier, Kulasegaran held a meeting with members of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) Sabah chapter.
He said the MEF members told him that employers had to reduce their number of workers and even close shop in some cases as they could not afford the minimum wage.
The minimum wage was previously set at RM920 but was increased to RM1,100 and implemented nationwide on Jan 1 this year.
