The government will implement a pilot project to raise workers' wages and provide debt compensation on a progressive wage basis, says Steven Sim.
The Human Resources Minister told reporters after attending the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) Power Chat 3.0 event on Friday (April 19) that the policy aims to incentivise employers to adopt more progressive salary structures for their employees.
00:00 You mentioned about 1000 selective companies, YB said, based on progressive wages. Can you explain why? YB said it will be launched in the second half of this year. Then the government will give incentives to the companies.
00:20 It is a basic that has been announced this year. We will implement a pilot project for progressive wages.
00:30 We want to see how we can improve the wages and pay the workers. One of the instruments we have now is minimum wage. We see it as one of the instruments that is needed.
00:51 It is important but it cannot solve all the wage problems. The research that has been shown in the last 20 years, the minimum wage has a positive impact on the low income group.
01:07 The lowest income group can benefit from it. But for the middle income group, the minimum wage has a negative impact.
01:19 We see other instruments, for example, the progressive wages project where we encourage the employers to give progressive wages to their workers.
01:34 When the employers do this, the government will give subsidies or grant payments. We are still discussing with the Ministry of Economy to issue formulas and salary structure, salary balance etc.
01:53 We expect the RITIS or pilot project will be launched in the second half of this year with the start of 1,000 companies.
