ALOR STAR: For Taufid Osman, 36, the month of May could not have come soon enough. For low-wage workers like him nationwide, the expected RM300 increase in monthly pay, following the implementation of Minimum Wage Order 2022, was supposed to have given him some room to breathe to meet his expenses.
Taufid, who has a 6-year-old daughter, was elated over having more money in his pocket when his salary of RM1,200 as a security guard was increased to RM1,500. It has been two months since the pay bump, but Taufid doesn't feel like celebrating.
"The sharp increase in the cost of goods has negated my salary increase.
"I'm still depending on part-time jobs to put food on the table for my family," said Taufid, who works at a school in Kuala Nerang, Padang Terap.
Apart from his wife and daughter, Taufid is also taking care of his ailing parents.
"My wife recently got a job at a goat farm nearby. She doesn't earn much, but I appreciate her effort to ease my burden.
"Things have become so expensive, and this is coming from someone who lives in a rural area. I dread to think what our situation would be if we lived in the city."
The last time the minimum wage was raised was in February 2020 — from RM1,100 to RM1,200 per month.
Although the government said employers must comply with the minimum wage order — except those with fewer than five workers have until the end of the year — the reality on the ground is different.
Dahari Abdullah, 57, a bus driver in Alor Star, is one of many low-income earners who are stuck with the previous minimum wage.
"I consider myself lucky as I only have a wife to support. My colleagues, who have children, are struggling as the prices of essential items are soaring.
"The government needs to focus on lowering the cost of living. Not all employers can afford to raise their workers' pay during this difficult time," he said.
The pressure of escalating cost of living has not been confined to minimum wage earners.
Technician Nasrul Ismail, 43, who earns RM1,500 a month, said when the new minimum wage was announced, he was hoping that his employer would review the salaries of those already earning more than RM1,200.
The spiralling cost of living, he said, was becoming unbearable.
The father of three said he now had to be extra thrifty. Even chicken is no longer a regular staple due to the steep price increase over the past few months.
"Judging by the current situation, I need to earn RM500 more a month to sufficiently care for my family.
"Sadly, I will have to live with the fact my employer can't afford to increase our pay for now," he said.
In Sungai Petani, Hasnah Ahmad (not her real name), who runs a daycare centre, is having sleepless nights for fear of losing her staff.
"I heard from other nursery and kindergarten operators that a number of their staff have left to work at factories.
"We can't afford to stop them. With the higher cost of living, we understand why they left.
"The factories are offering the RM1,500 monthly minimum wage," she said.
Hasnah and most of the early childhood education centres are caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Of course, we are obliged to raise the minimum pay. In fact, we also want to pay our staff more due to higher cost of living but we can't increase the fees now as many parents are also struggling financially."
For the operators, the new minimum wage has come at a very challenging time as they are still struggling to cover the huge losses suffered during the Movement Control Order at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The increase in prices of chicken, flour and other essential items for the children's meals have pushed their operating cost up by 30 per cent.
In a report released in July 2020, the Department of Statistic Malaysia (DoSM) had calculated that in Kedah, a household earning RM3,710 and below would be in the Bottom 40 (B40).
Households earning between RM3,710 and RM7,549 are in the Middle 40 (M40) group.
DoSM, in the Household Expenses Survey carried out in 2019, reported that on average, B40 households in Kedah allocated 26.2 per cent of their monthly earnings on essentials such as rice, cooking oil, milk, meat and fish.
Another 21.9 per cent is spent on house loan payments or rent, utility bills and fuel, and 13.4 per cent would be spent on transport. B40 households in Kedah allocated the least amount of their monthly earnings for education, at less than one per cent.
Childcare fees are a sensitive matter to parents of young children in Kedah, especially the B40 group.
"I am paying RM160 a month for my daughter's kindergarten fee. Any fee hike will be an additional burden to me," said Taufid.
Even parents in the M40 group are also worried about having to pay more for childcare.
One working mother from Kulim, who wished to be identified as Diyana, 36, said she spent almost RM900 per month on childcare, kindergarten and transport.
"We are paying RM380 a month for my 2-year-old son's nursery, RM350 for my 4-year-old daughter's kindergarten and another RM180 for my 7-year-old son's transit fee," she said.
Although the couple's joint income is just enough to place them in the M40 group, they are not entitled to childcare and preschool subsidies from the government because the per capita income of their urban household is slightly over the RM800 limit.
"If the fees are revised, we will probably have to spend RM1,000 a month or even more," she said.
"My husband and I are not getting a pay hike this year but our housing, cars and personal loan payments have gone up, not to mention the price hike of essential items.
"We are slashing some expenses and cancelled travel plans so that we could keep on saving for our children's education," she said.