Wage gap: Malaysian women only make RM94 for every RM100 men get

 

Malaysian women make 94 sen on average compared to every ringgit men earn according to 2019 data from the Department of Statistics (DOSM).

This is an increase of 7 sen compared to 2018.

The DOSM said for every RM100 a man makes, a woman will get paid RM94.07.

Men's average estimated salary per year in 2019 was RM39,648, while women's was RM37,296.

This is an increase of RM1,560 for men compared to 2018 figures and an increase of RM1,778 for women.

In terms of labour force participation, 80.9 percent of men were in the workforce compared to 55.6 percent of women.

The figures were given as part of the DOSM's "Statistics On Women Empowerment In Selected Domains report" which was published today.

According to the department, the Malaysia Gender Gap Index is at 0.709. A value of one indicates that equality has been achieved.

Besides wages, one notable area women were behind in was political empowerment.

"Political empowerment (in 2019) recorded the lowest (score) at 10.8 percent. That shows women are still lagging behind men in ministerial positions and in parliamentary and state elected representatives," said chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

This is, however, a marginal increase from 2018 (10.6 percent).

Only 14.9 percent of MPs were women, while 17.9 percent of ministers under the 2019 Pakatan Harapan government were women.

Uzir also said that based on the gender gap index score, Malaysia's global ranking on gender equality dropped 10 places to 73rd spot compared to 2018.

Women continued to outperform men in tertiary education enrollment, at 50.2 percent compared to 36.3 percent for men. - Mkini