KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Nearly 90 per cent of companies provided salary increases to executives and non-executives in 2025, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said today.

Its survey titled MEF Salary Survey for Executives 2025 showed actual increases for 2025 for executives at 5.03 per cent while non executives received 4.65 per cent.

The 2026 forecast showed executives may see a 5.33 per cent increase while non-executives are projected to receive 5.01 per cent.

"We found that around 88.9 per cent of executives and 89.9 per cent non-executives received salary adjustments in 2025," said MEF president Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman.

"The criteria in determining these salary increases for executives was 89.4 per cent based on performance and performance continues to be the dominant factor," he said.

"This was followed by capacity to pay 66.2 per cent, annual salary review 58.3 per cent, 55.6 per cent market rate and 52.3 per cent company's profitability and productivity level," he said.

"Whereas for the non-executives, 81.8 per cent was based on performance, 58.9 capacity to pay, 52.2 per cent annual salary review, 49.3 per cent market rate and 46.9 per cent depended on the company's profitability and productivity levels," he said.

MEF said 82 per cent of companies awarded increments, with average bonuses for 2025 amounting to 2.17 months for executives and 1.96 months for non-executives.

It said the 2026 bonus forecast stands at 2.16 months for executives and 2.02 months for non-executives.

MEF noted that 88.5 per cent of companies determined executive bonuses based on productivity and performance, while the rate was 84.7 per cent for non-executives.

The survey took into account 266 companies from both the manufacturing and non manufacturing sectors. The executive report covers 199 benchmark positions involving 13,082 executives.

The non executive report covers 95 benchmark positions representing 27,017 non-executives.