The National Minimum Wage

"PUTRAJAYA: The Government wants to study the minimum wage mechanism so that workers are better paid in line with efforts to transit to a high-income economy. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said his ministry was looking at various ways practised worldwide to determine one that suits the country best." (source from Thestar Friday January 15, 2010)

In another article by NST, Dr Subramaniam revealed that there were workers still earning less than RM750 per month. He said an analysis by the Industrial Relations Department on 308 samples of collective agreements between employers and workers in 2007 found that the average minimum wage for clerical workers was RM485, technicians (RM690), and general workers (RM477) per month. He added that a study by the Malaysian Employers Federation found that unskilled workers, general workers and labourers in the electrical and electronic sectors received RM443 per month. In addition, Malaysia is ranked 59 on the Index of Economic Freedom. Generally the low wages in Malaysia does not attract locals to work in the nation which leads to a high intake of foreign workers.

The announcement of Dr Subramaniam on the increase of wages for security guards to 1100 to 1450 which over writes the Wages Council Act has given a great impact for the industry. By implementing the national minimum wage policy this will protect the employees, agency workers and also home workers. It is believed that with this, rate of unemployment of locals will be decreased. However, there are still a lot of questions on the effect of this policy on employers...

Posted by ahkeenz at 12:13 AM