PETALING JAYA – The YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced during the tabling of Budget 2025 in Parliament that the minimum wages will be increased to rm1,700 with effect from 1st February 2025 for employers with 5 and more employees.
Micro employers with less than 5 employees are given further grace period of 6 months to implement the RM1,700 minimum wages with effect from 1st February 2025. The Minimum Wage was last reviewed to RM1,500 per month with effect from 1st May 2022 for all employers except for micro-businesses employing less than 5 employees. The minimum wage increase was deferred for micro-businesses employing less than 5 employees until January 1st, 2023.
Since 1st January 2023 the minimum wage of RM1,500 applies nationwide. The National Wages Consultative Council Act 2011 (Act 732) provides for a review of the minimum wage order biennially.
MEF President, Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman, PJN, JP, states that “MEF is thankful to YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar, Prime Minister Malaysia and the government that understand and take into account the challenges faced by MSMEs in determining the new minimum wages rate of RM1,700 and giving reasonable grace period for employers to implement the new minimum wages especially for the micro enterprises with less than 5 employees. MEF also thanks YB Encik Steven Sim Chee Keong, Minister of Human Resources for being close to the stakeholders, employers and unions and having a real feel of the challenges on the ground”.
MEF also thanks the National Wages Consultative Council (NWCC) for facilitating the meetings for members of NWCC to discuss and deliberated these issues before unanimously reaching a common position. The NWCC had submitted its recommendations to the government on the review of the minimum wage rate. The technical details of the review was undertaken by the Technical Committee of the NWCC which entailed gathering of proposals from various stakeholders, including employers and employees.
Datuk Dr Syed Hussain states further that “It is critical for the stakeholders to understand that the majority of the businesses in Malaysia are MSMEs. Even among the MSMEs there are differences between Urban business and Rural businesses. Therefore any decision to review minimum wages must take into account all these factors, Minimum wage has never been an issue with MNCs, GLCs, GLICs and large local companies. The challenge is with the MSMEs”.
“MEF is of the view that the new Minimum Wage of RM 1,700 is only the starting point. Most employers pay above minimum wage. MEF urges employers which can afford higher salary should pay above minimum wage. No one should use minimum wage as an excuse to pay based on the minimum wage. It is only ethical and good practice for employers to remunerate their employees based on their employees’ and their businesses performances”. -MalayaDailyToday
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