With the rising cost of living, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced that a new minimum wage policy will come into effect on 1 May. The upcoming minimum salary will be raised to RM1,500 a month, with details to be finalised soon.
Ismail said the Human Resources Ministry and the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry will be holding discussions to identify small and micro businesses that can’t afford to pay RM1,500. While no specific conditions have been revealed yet, the Prime Minister said that selected small businesses will be able to “delay” paying the new minimum. This suggests that they will also be subjected to the policy eventually.
This isn’t a major surprise seeing as the move has been teased for months. Just last week, Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan revealed that the minimum wage increase would be in place “soon” instead of the end of the year. However, not all parties support the increase, such as the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) which claims that only foreign workers in the country benefit from the raise.
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The minimum wage was first enforced in 2013 under Minimum Wages Order 2012, which was set at RM900. The National Wages Consultative Council is required to review the minimum salary every two years. The last time it was revised was in 2020, when it was hiked to RM1,200 in 56 cities and towns, but remained at RM1,100 everywhere else.
(Source: UMNO Online/Facebook)
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