APRIL 22 — If anyone had said four months ago that a third of the world’s population would be on some form of lockdown with movement restricted by their respective governments, few would have believed them.

Yet here we are today, in our new reality where the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world as we know it to a screeching halt. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the world economy would shrink at its fastest pace in decades, describing this decline as the worst since the 1930s Great Depression.

Here in Malaysia, many businesses have been severely affected, with cash flow maximisation and employee retention becoming paramount issues. As the pandemic escalates, the government has introduced several initiatives to stand behind employers, with the intention that employers will in turn, stand behind their employees.

Among these initiatives are the wage subsidy programme (WSP) and employment retention programme (ERP). These measures are mutually exclusive and many employers are unaware of its features and which measure would suit them best.

Let’s look at a summary of the features of these programmes — WSP

Under the WSP, employers are subsidised for a period of three months for wages incurred on employees earning RM4,000 and below. Subsidies are provided as follows: