PUTRAJAYA, Aug 4 — The median monthly wage in March for Malaysian formal employees was RM2,600, an increase of 8.3 per cent from RM2,400 in March 2022, said the Employee Wages Statistics (Formal Sector) Report, First Quarter 2023.
Statistics Department chief Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the report showed the number of formal workers was 6.45 million in March this year.
“Male formal employees constitute 55.5 per cent or 3.58 million of all formal workers, with a median wage of RM2,664 per month.
“Female formal workers account for 44.5 per cent or 2.87 million people with a median monthly wage of RM2,545,” he told a press conference after the report was launched by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
Formal workers are those who work under a contract of service or apprenticeship and receive remuneration for the work completed.
Uzir said the report was based on data from the Employees’ Provident Fund and the Social Security Organisation, and does not consider 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.
He said the Chinese ethnic group earned the highest monthly median 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 wages in March were earned by formal workers aged 45 to 49 and 40 to 44, respectively, amounting to RM3,500.
The under-20 group received the lowest median wage of RM1,500 that month.
Uzir said the mining and quarrying sector, despite accounting for only 0.5 per cent of all formal workers, recorded the highest monthly median wage of RM7,500, while the agriculture sector had the lowest at RM1,900.
He said the highest median monthly wages in March were received by Kuala Lumpur residents at RM3,927, followed by Selangor at RM2,964 and Penang at RM2,627.
The states with the lowest monthly median wages that month were Kelantan, Perlis and Sabah at RM1,600, RM1,627 and RM1,782, respectively.
Uzir said the report was the first product successfully published using Pangkalan Data Utama (Padu), which involves the integration of various administrative data on the labour market.
— Bernama
