Written by Yong Huey Leng
The Minimum Wages Order 2022 (“the Order”) was gazetted on 27 April 2022.
- The national monthly minimum wage in Malaysia is now increased from RM 1,200.00 to RM 1,500.00 beginning 01.05.2022.
- The increase in minimum wage only applies to employees employed by:-
(a) an employer who employs five or more employees; and
(b) those employed by an employer who carries out a professional activity classified under the Malaysia Standard Classification of Occupations (“MASCO”) as published officially by the Ministry of Human Resources (“MASCO employer”). This includes, amongst others, professionals such as lawyers, medical practitioners, engineers and auditors.
- The minimum wage rates payable to an employee effective from 01.05.2022 is as follows:-
- Employers with less than 5 employees are exempted from increasing the minimum wage. Hence, the existing monthly minimum wage rate of RM1,200.00 will continue to apply until 01.01.2023.
- A MASCO employer will be subjected to increasing its employee’s minimum wage regardless of their number of employees.
Conclusion
While some employers, particularly medium-sized enterprises may argue that this increase in minimum wage is an added burden, as many of them are still recovering from the pandemic; it may be a timely increase for employees who took a huge economic hit during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uploaded in 11 May 2022
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash