KUALA LUMPUR: Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli today announced that the median salary in Malaysia has increased from RM2,600 to RM2,745 per month, according to the latest data that was obtained from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
In a video post on his Facebook account, Rafizi said this increase was observed between June 2023 and June 2024.
"This latest data increase means the median salary for the 6.73 million formal sector employees in the country is now RM2,745 per month," he said.
In comparison, Rafizi said the percentage of employees earning below RM2,000 per month has also decreased from 34.8 percent of the workforce in June 2023 to 32.2 percent in June this year.
"The number of workers earning between RM2,000 and RM5,000 has increased from 42.7 percent of the workforce in June last year to 43.8 percent in June this year.
"Meanwhile, the proportion of employees earning more than RM5,000 also rose from 22.5 percent of the workforce to 24 percent for the same period," he said in the post.
This salary growth, Rafizi said, supports the government's goal of increasing the median salary each year to improve the financial well-being of Malaysian households.
Earlier, Rafizi also mentioned that he is frequently asked when private sector salaries will rise, since the civil servants have already received a pay raise from the government.
He said as part of his efforts to address this issue, he had instructed DOSM to publish a report on formal sector wages every three months, making it one of the first decisions he made as soon as he was made the Minister of Economy.
"This report will utilise data from several channels including the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) to provide insights into the earnings of formal sector workers and this will also enable the government to formulate better policies to increase wages over the next 10 years, in line with the aspirations of the Madani Economy." he said.
However, in the video Rafizi also acknowledged that low wages among workers still pose a challenge to the nation's economy, despite the positive growth in salaries. He pointed out that 32.2 percent of workers, or 2.167 million Malaysians, still earn less than RM2,000 a month.
Looking ahead, Rafizi said he is confident that the situation would improve starting in 2025 with three key government decisions related to wages: the increase in civil servant salaries, the minimum wage hike to RM1,700 per month, and the full implementation of progressive wages for private sector workers, with an initial allocation of RM200 million for 2025.
"Insya-Allah, wages will continue to improve every year from now on," Rafizi said.