KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Sosialis Malaysia chairman Dr Michael Jeyakumar has renewed calls for a review of the minimum wage, urging the government to rethink its strategy to raise it in tandem with other Asean countries.
Speaking after a forum in Cheras here last night, he suggested making use of Asean free-trade agreements and the United Nations’ Group of 77 to ensure that wages are not raised to the advantage of competitors.
Because Malaysia is marketed to foreign investors as a low-wage economy, he said, they might take their business elsewhere if the minimum wage is raised too much.
“Our whole form of industrialisation is based on low wages. We are trapped in the system,” he added.
He also warned against raising wages in isolation, saying this may cause the country to lose out on important foreign direct investments.
“The middle-income trap is because we were integrated into the world economy on the basis of low wages,” he said.
“To get out of that, we have to change the whole paradigm.”
Some 70% of Malaysians are reportedly wage-earners in various sectors.
In its election manifesto last year, Pakatan Harapan pledged to increase the minimum wage to RM1,500 across the board.
During Budget 2019, however, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said minimum wage would only be increased to RM1,100. - FMT
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