KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced plans to introduce a higher minimum wage for graduates and semi-skilled workers, to ensure that remuneration efforts are reflective of workers’ skills and qualifications.

At the tabling of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday, he said the move would include technical and vocational education and training graduates under MASCO Code 8 and above.

Malaysia currently adopts a national minimum wage policy of RM1,700 monthly, compared with the living wage benchmark of RM3,100. It also introduced a progressive wage policy last year, although that is not compulsory for employers.

“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 introduced the voluntary progressive wage policy in 2024, under which an employer could increase wages to required levels and receive government support of up to RM300 per month for eligible employees to reduce the wage gap.

Its national minimum wage policy applies to private sector workers, including full-time, part-time, and contract employees, as well as contract workers in the public sector. However, it excludes permanent civil servants, interns, and most domestic workers who fall under separate wage systems or are not formally covered.

Under the current government, the national minimum wage was raised twice, from RM1,200 to RM1,500, and then later to RM1,700.

Anwar 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.

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