Even Ismail Sabri gave us better minimum wage rise, PSM fumes

BUDGET 2025 | Former premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob had given Malaysia a minimum wage rise of RM300 while Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had only increased it by RM200, PSM said.

In a video posted to TikTok, PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan expressed disappointment with Anwar raising the minimum wage to RM1,700.

“When Ismail became PM, he raised the minimum salary by RM300. This is the Madani government under Anwar, who claims to be the champion of the marhen (common man), but the minimum wage he raised was only RM200,” he said in a video conversation with PSM central committee member Chong Yee Shan.

“The minimum wage of RM1,700 announced by the prime minister goes against the minimum wage proposed by the same prime minister for the public sector which was RM2,000.

“The prime minister then asked the private sector to follow the minimum set by the government but had no political will to implement the minimum wage of RM2,000,” he added.

Calling the announcement a betrayal, Arutchelvan (above) said that taking into account the poverty line income, average workers per household, median wage, labour productive growth, consumer price index and unemployment rate, the minimum wage for urban workers should be RM2,568 and rural area is RM1,884.

Given the weightage, PSM calculates the average minimum wage for the country to be RM2,444, he said.

From RM1,500 to RM1,700

Anwar on Friday announced that the national minimum wage will be increased from RM1,500 to RM1,700 beginning February next year.

He added that employers with fewer than five workers will be allowed to postpone paying the new minimum wage for six months and only begin in August 2025.

He also said that the progressive wage policy is the Madani government’s effort to reform the labour market to increase workers’ income. It will be fully implemented next year and will benefit 50,000 workers.

A total of RM200 million has been allocated for this policy.

Progressive wage ‘lie’

Arutchelvan said in an additional statement that it was a “sad and blatant lie” in the budget to the Malaysian public in giving an impression that workers will get higher wages under the progressive wage structure.

He noted that this was simply not doable because the progressive wage plan is only at an experimental stage, only implemented in a limited scope and is not binding or compulsory.

“Furthermore the prime minister did not allocate money in the budget to make the progressive wage the wage structure for Malaysia for 2025 as claimed,” he said.

Arutchelvan also said he was sad with a statement by Human Resources Minister Steven Sim on Oct 18, which gave an impression that workers’ representatives and employers had unanimously agreed to the new RM1,700 minimum wage.

He said PSM letters to the minister and the National Minimum Wage Consultation Council requesting a meeting were ignored, claiming they were not invited, unlike in the past when minimum wage consultation was done.

“This is sad because PSM and its front organisations were the strongest components fighting for minimum wage laws in this country historically until it was made a law.

“Today the ministry gives an impression that they have the endorsement of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress which itself is embroiled in factional fights. In reality, unions only represent less than six percent of our workforce.

“Besides that, most workers represented by unions earn much higher than the minimum wage. They do not actually have the interest or the locus to agree to the lower wages which their own union members would not support,” he said.

He added that workers at the bottom of the pecking order will feel betrayed and that the minimum wage of RM1,700, delayed by nine months, can hardly offset the real increase in inflation.

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