Fresh grads deserve more honourable salaries, says MP

 

Starting salaries of fresh graduates last year was reported to be RM1,000 to RM1,500.

PETALING JAYA: Fresh graduates deserve better and more honourable starting salaries upon entering the labour market, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said today.

He called for discussions to be held about youth unemployment and better starting salaries for fresh graduates, saying the two problems were not caused by the Covid-19 pandemic but were a systemic issue that needed immediate action.

Citing data from the higher education ministry, Nik Nazmi said most new graduates earned between RM2,001 and RM2,500 from 2014 to 2019, while the highest level of salaries was RM3,001 to RM5,000 in 2015.

However, fresh graduates last year were mostly earning RM1,001 to RM1,500, he said.

“We cannot ask our graduates to be thankful while we deny the existence of this problem. With the rise in the cost of living, a good starting pay is important. We should be working towards giving graduates an honourable salary,” said Nik Nazmi.

“They’ve already gone through a long formal education process, and most of them come out with student debts. They’ve just started adulthood, and it’s a process that requires an honourable salary,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Nik Nazmi, who is PKR’s parliamentary spokesman for education, said Parliament was the best platform to debate and discuss graduates’ salaries, adding that there was no news on what the national employment council announced in December was doing.

He added that giving fresh graduates better salaries would ensure increased productivity and stimulate the economy.

On April 3, economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed said the starting salary for graduates entering the job market was expected to be higher over the next three or four months with the country’s economy recovering.

He said the government was aware that the salary received by new graduates last year was low and attributed the situation to the Covid-19 pandemic, which adversely affected the country’s economic growth, as well as globally. - FMT