THE median monthly wage in March for citizen formal employees is RM2,600, an increase of 8.3% from RM2,400 a year ago, according to the Employee Wages Statistics (Formal Sector) Report, First Quarter 2023.

The report also revealed that a significant 35% of workers earn less than RM2,000 a month.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the report released by the Department of Statistics showed that the number of formal workers stood at 6.45 million in March.

“Male formal employees constitute 55.5% or 3.58 million people of all formal workers, with the median wage of RM2,664 per month.

“Female formal workers account for 44.5% or 2.87 million people, with the median monthly salary wage of RM2,545,” he told a press conference after the report’s launch by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.

Formal workers refer to those who work under a contract of service or apprenticeship with the employer and receive remuneration for the work completed.

Uzir said the report was based on data from the Employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security Organisation, and did not take into account the majority of public-sector salaries.

“The wages estimated in this publication refer to all rewards in the form of money, which include bonuses, commissions and allowances paid to employees for work done during the reporting period,” he said.

Uzir said the Chinese workers earned the highest median monthly wage of RM4,000 in March, followed by Indians at RM2,500, Bumiputeras at RM2,200 and others at RM2,000.

On wages by age group, Uzir said the highest median wage was earned by formal workers aged 45-49 and 40-44, amounting to RM3,500.

The under-20 age group received the lowest median wage of RM1,500 that month.

On the wage situation by economic activity, Uzir said the mining and quarrying sector, despite accounting for only 0.5% of all formal workers, recorded the highest median monthly wage of RM7,500, while the agriculture sector had the lowest at RM1,900.

He said the highest median monthly wage in March were received by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur at RM3,927, followed by Selangor at RM2,964 and Penang at RM2,627.

The states with the lowest median monthly wage that month were Kelantan, Perlis and Sabah at RM1,600, RM1,627 and RM1,782 respectively.

Uzir said the report was the first that has been successfully published using the Pangkalan Data Utama initiative, which involves the integration of various administrative data related to the labour market. 

Earlier, Rafizi said the report was part of the government’s efforts to resolve low wages among the people. – Bernama, August 4, 2023.