Median wages for formal workers at RM2,600 in March 2023

PUTRAJAYA - Median monthly wages in March 2023 for citizen formal employees is RM2,600, an increase of 8.3 per cent from RM2,400 in March 2022, according to the Employee Wages Statistics (Formal Sector) Report, First Quarter 2023.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the report released by the Department of Statistics (DOSM) showed that the number of formal workers stood at 6.45 million in March 2023.

"Male formal employees constitute 55.5 per cent or 3.58 million people of all formal workers, with median wages of RM2,664 per month.

"Female formal workers account for 44.5 per cent or 2.87 million persons with median monthly wages of RM2,545,” he told a press conference after the report’s launch by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.

Formal workers refer to those who work under a contract of service or apprenticeship with the employer and receive remuneration for the work completed.

Mohd Uzir said the report was based on data from the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and the Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) and did not take into account the majority of public sector salaries.

"The wages estimated in this publication refer to all rewards in the form of money, which include bonuses, commissions and allowances paid to employees for work done during the reporting period,” he said.

He said the Chinese ethnic earned the highest monthly median wage of RM4,000 in March 2023, followed by Indians at RM2,500, Bumiputera at RM2,200 and others at RM2,000.

On wages by age group, Mohd Uzir said the highest median wages in March 2023 were earned by formal workers aged 45 to 49 and 40 to 44, respectively, amounting to RM3,500.

The under-20 age group received the lowest median wage of RM1,500 that month.

Regarding the wage situation by economic activity, Mohd Uzir said the mining and quarrying sector, despite accounting for only 0.5 per cent of all formal workers, recorded the highest monthly median wage of RM7,500, while the agriculture sector had the lowest at RM1,900.

He also said the highest median monthly wages in March 2023 were received by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur at RM3,927, followed by Selangor at RM2,964 and Penang at RM2,627.

The states with the lowest monthly median wages that month were Kelantan, Perlis and Sabah at RM1,600, RM1,627 and RM1,782, respectively.

Mohd Uzir said the report was the first product that has been successfully published using the Pangkalan Data Utama (PADU) initiative, which involves the integration of various administrative data related to the labour market. - BERNAMA