Kota Kinabalu: The minimum wage set for the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak, although different at the moment, is a starting point for achieving a uniform minimum wage figure for the country. Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the Government actually wanted the minimum wage figure to be just one for the whole nation but the National Wages Consultative Council decided to come up with different figures for peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.
He said the minimum wage that was set at RM900 (RM4.33 per hour) for the peninsula and RM800 (RM3.85 per hour) in Sabah, Labuan and Sarawak is not to discriminate but "more of an attempt to bridge the gap which has existed for years."
The recommended figures on this were also agreed upon by the representatives of employers and employees who sit in the council, he said, Thursday.
He said the NWCC would take into account the median wage which employers could afford to offer, Poverty Line Income (PLI), the percentage growth of productivity, Consumer Price Index and current unemployment rates, to decide on the minimum wage.
He said the different rates decided by the government recently was caused by low median wage and high PLI in Sabah and Sarawak compared to the peninsula.
Subramaniam said currently, the median wages in Sabah and Sarawak were RM577.40 and RM738.71 respectively, compared to RM1,134.25 in the peninsula while the PLI in the two states were RM1,048 and RM912 respectively, compared to RM763 in the peninsula.
The Minister said the Government's intention is to see employees earn more than the minimum wage figures. Like in other countries, he said Malaysia hopes to see less than 10 per cent earning at the minimum wage level and the rest of the employees earning above the set minimum wages.
Right now more than 44 per cent of employees in this country are still earning below the minimum wage figures, he said, adding that the Government wants to see less than 10 per cent of this remain at the minimum wage level while the rest (30 per cent) would have moved to a much higher salary than the set minimum wages.
"That can only be done by a structural reform, that is restructuring the economy including increasing the productivity level and doing business in a way that is different from what we are doing nowÉthis shift we can't deny, that shift we should have done years before," he said.
The Minister also said that the minimum wages to be implemented by the government would also cover the foreign workers, because it is also part of the government effort to reduce over dependency on foreign workers.
Subramaniam said the whole idea of the minimum wage is not to make foreign labour cheaper than the local workers, but to make them (foreign workers) more expensive if not at the same cost.
He said the effort to set the minimum wages for the private sectors in the three regions actually started about two years ago.
"It was actually something that started about two years ago and involves a long process until today which is, fortunately or unfortunately, somewhere near the election. It has been announced and therefore we have to manage the announcement and manage the implementation," he said.
The minimum wages for private sector policy, which was already passed in parliament, also provides for a transition period, that is it would take effect 12 months after it is gazetted for the micro enterprises and six months for the other enterprises.
The 12 months transition period is not applicable to professional firms even if they employ less than five workers, and any person may apply to the said council for an extension of the commencement date of the Order for the implementation period different than the set commencement date.
The minimum wages cover all employees as defined in the Employment Act 1955, Labour Ordinance (Sabah Cap. 67) and Labour Ordinance (Sarawak Cap. 76) in all economic sectors.
It covers all private sector workers including foreign workers in the formal employment.
