KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — The biennial review of the minimum wage may become more frequent if the country’s economic progress justifies this, said Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar.
Speaking at the Dewan Rakyat today during Question Time, Mahfuz was responding to Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah) who asked if this could be made annual instead.
“Under the Act we must review the scale at least once every two years. But like I said we can take into consideration if the situation becomes desperate or the economy and the SMEs become better then we can conduct a review more than once every two years,” said Mahfuz.
At the same time, he said the government’s move to standardise minimum wage for peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan and for foreign workers was also to discourage employers from employing migrants as there would be no cost advantage.
Previously, some foreign workers were willing to work for as little as RM500 while the minimum wage for Malaysians was RM1,000 for the peninsula and RM920 for East Malaysia. Now, this is RM1,050 across the board.
Mahfuz also reiterated Pakatan Harapan’s commitment to its manifesto pledge of a RM1,500 minimum wage within five years.
He added the reason the Cabinet only raised the minimum wage by RM50 in the peninsula was that it must take into account the operating expenditure of businesses in Malaysia, including small-medium enterprises as well as foreign direct investors.
“A drastic minimum wage increase will also increase the employer’s cost through EPF and Socso contributions as well as overtime. We are concern that it will also have an adverse impact on FDI.
“The government must make sure that the current investors will remain in Malaysia,” said Mahfuz.
