COMPANIES with fewer than five workers need only start paying the new RM1,500 minimum wage in July instead of from next month, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said today.

The move aims to help these small companies adjust their cash flow and to improve their financial standing, said the minister.

“This decision was made after the government took into account the views of the stakeholders who are expecting economic and financial challenges in 2023,” he said in a statement.

The minimum wage hike was enforced in May but small companies were exempted.

Sivakumar said the extension does not apply to employers involved in professional work listed in the Malaysia Standard Classification of Occupation.

Employers, especially small businesses, had complained that the increase of the minimum wage from RM1,200 to RM1,500 would cost them too much while they were just recovering from the Covid-induced economic slowdown.

Malaysian Employers’ Federation president Syed Hussain Syed Husman had said that the new wage rate would cost employers RM14 billion a year.

He warned that some businesses would cease operations as a result of the higher costs. – December 27, 2022.