Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced plans to extend the minimum wage policy to cover graduates and semi-skilled workers, including technical and vocational education and training graduates under MASCO Code 8 and above.
At the tabling of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday, he said the move aims to ensure that remuneration efforts are reflective of workers’ skills and qualifications.
“To continue improving the labour market, efforts to comprehensively align wages will be accelerated to ensure workers enjoy a fairer and more equitable share of the economy,” Anwar said.
To support the policy’s expansion, efforts will be made to strengthen the role of National Wages Consultative Council to allow for further transparency and better response in its wage monitoring tool.
Improvements will also be made to the e-MASCO web portal — an online platform by the Department of Statistics Malaysia to monitor wages across different sectors.
These wage initiatives aim to address long-standing issues of income disparity, underemployment, and wage stagnation in the current landscape of Malaysia’s labour market.
Malaysia’s minimum wage currently applies to private sector workers, including full-time, part-time, and contract employees, as well as contract workers in the public sector, but excludes permanent civil servants, interns, and most domestic workers who fall under separate wage systems or are not formally covered.
Under the Madani government, Anwar reminded the Dewan Rakyat that the national minimum wage was raised twice, from RM1,200 to RM1,500, and then later to RM1,700.
He also encouraged large companies to voluntarily adopt decent living wage practices, a move that has already been implemented across government-linked companies and government-linked investment companies, where the wage was set at RM3,100 per month.
Source: theedgemalaysia