About 82 percent of local companies will not defer implementation of the national minimum wage policy, according to the findings of a survey conducted by the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).

The ‘Salary Survey for Executives and Non-Executives 2013', carried out between June and September, revealed that half the respondents provided training to upgrade the skills of their foreign workers as a measure to cope with the implementation of the national minimum wages on Jan 1,2014.

MEF is the central organisation for private sector employers in Malaysia.

The survey was conducted on 257 member companies involving 13,568 executives from 196 benchmark positions, as well as, 32,808 non-executives in 155 benchmark positions from the manufacturing to non manufacturing sectors.   

However, 68.4 percent of the participating companies indicated that restructuring of salary packages and increasing productivity were two main challenges in implementing the wage policy, its president Azman Shah Haron told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

“A total of 83.9 percent of participating companies wanted the government to provide tax incentives as one of the measures to relief the burden of the companies arising from the implementation of minimum wages,” he said.

The survey also disclosed that the average salary increase for executives were slightly higher at 6.31 percent in 2013 compared with 6.29 percent in 2012.

Average salary increases for non-executives grew by 6.78 percent from 5.83 percent in the previous year, added Azman.

- Bernama