KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Monthly median income in Malaysia climbed 7.7 per cent to reach RM2,160 in 2017, the Statistics Department (DOSM) disclosed in a report released today.

The latest annual "Salaries and Wages Survey Report” comes after a business weekly published a report last week that stated fewer than half of Malaysians earned above RM1,703 a month in 2016, which cited the DOSM’s data.

"Meanwhile, the mean monthly salaries & wages increased to RM2,880 as compared to RM2,657 in the previous year with the growth rate of 8.1 per cent,” it said in its report.

By education level, median wage growth was highest among those with no formal schooling, who recorded a 16.8 per cent increase to their median wage that climbed to RM1,410 from RM1,192 last year.

Median salary increases for SPM leavers were the lowest, increasing 6.7 per cent to RM2,055 in 2017. Degree holders earned 7.7 per cent more, with their median wage climbing to RM4,320.

The DOSM report acknowledged the difference between rural and urban workers, although the workforce is heavily skewed towards the latter.

The country’s 7.3 million urban voters earned on average RM3,038 in 2017, up from RM2,812 in 2016. By median salary, the figures were RM2,260 and RM2,115.

For rural areas, 1.4 million workers earned RM1,400 on average last year or RM50 more than the previous year. By median income, this climbed from RM1,916 to RM2,040.

The DOSM considers workers to be those working at least six hours a day or at least 20 days each month.

It said there were 8.7 million workers in the labour pool last year.