At RM2,600, median wage up year-on-year, but dipped in Q2

Median wages of Malaysians in formal employment improved compared to 2022 but there was a dip from April to June this year.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the median wage for formal employees in June 2023 was RM2,600 a month, up 4.9 percent compared to the same month last year.

However, this April, it stood at RM2,664, or about 2.4 percent higher than in June.

The number of Malaysians in formal employment also rose 1.6 percent to 6.6 million people.

This means two-thirds of all citizens are paid employees, chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement.

Those aged 20 and below enjoyed the highest year-on-year growth in median wage of 25 percent, likely due to the implementation of the RM1,500 minimum wage in 2022.

However, the age group’s wages were stagnant in June, DOSM found.

Workers who received the highest median monthly wage in June were aged 45-49, with the median wage for this age group being RM3,500.

This is a slight dip from RM3,528 in April but better than in May when it stood at RM3,428.

Chinese do better, women still trailing

Median wages for women continue to trail slightly at RM2,575 a month compared to RM2,645 monthly for their male counterparts.

Women make up 44.5 percent of the workforce.

The median wage for the ethnic Chinese group is also far higher than other ethnicities at RM4,000 a month in June 2023, or some 44 percent more than their bumiputera counterparts.

Indian workers had a median wage of RM2,500, stagnant since April, while the median wages for “other” ethnicities was the lowest at RM2,000 in June 2023.

KL workers earn the most

Those working in Kuala Lumpur still command the highest pay, with a median monthly wage of RM3,822 in June 2023, outstripping the national median by 32 percent.

This is also 23 percent higher than median wages in neighbouring Selangor, which stood at RM2,945 a month in June.

The median wage in KL is also a significant 58 percent more than in the states with the lowest median wages.

States with the lowest median wage are Kelantan and Perlis, with RM1,600 a month, respectively.

Although in much better stead compared to other workers in other states, workers in KL suffered a slight dip in median monthly wages in the second quarter of the year.

In April the median monthly wage was RM4,064, about RM200 more than in June. - Mkini