Median wages of formal citizen employees rose by 4.9 per cent in June 2023 to record RM2,600 as compared to June 2023

Male formal employees which constitute 55.5 per cent (3.66 million persons) of the total formal employees in June 2023, received higher median monthly wages than females. The median monthly wages for male formal employees stood at RM2,645 while female formal employees who made up 44.5 per cent (2.94 million persons) of total formal employees earned RM2,527.

Looking at detailed wages statistics by age group indicates that the age group 45 to 49 years recorded the highest median monthly wages in June 2023, with median monthly wages of RM3,500. This age group also received the highest median monthly wages in April 2023 (RM3,582) and May 2023 (RM3,482). Comparing June 2023 to the same month in the previous year, all age groups experienced an increase in median monthly wages, except for those below 20 years. The age group 60 to 64 years demonstrates the highest year-on-year growth in June 2023 which increased 11.7 per cent to RM2,764. Meanwhile, in April 2023, the age group below 20 years enjoyed the highest year-on-year growth (25.0%), the highest for four consecutive months since January 2023. However, the age group below 20 years recorded slower growth of median monthly wages in May 2023 (year-on-year growth: 5.5%) and stagnant in June 2023 (year-on-year growth: 0.0%) due to the base effect of the implementation of the new minimum wage rate of RM1,500 in 2022 had subsided.

Expanding on the wages situation across economic activity in the second quarter of 2023, Mining & quarrying notably registered substantial double-digit year-on-year growth in median monthly wages in June 2023 at RM5,200, despite only representing 0.5 per cent of the total formal employees. All sectors recorded a year-on-year increase in median monthly wages in June 2023 except for the Agricultural sector, which registered a decrease of 0.9 per cent to RM1,927.

All states indicated positive growth year on year in terms of the median monthly wages. Three states posted a greater median monthly wages compared to the national median monthly wages of RM2,600, namely Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur registered the highest median monthly wages at RM3,822, followed by Selangor at RM2,945 and Pulau Pinang at RM2,645. However, Kelantan, Perlis and Sabah registered the lowest median monthly wages with RM1,600, RM1,600 and RM1,800 respectively.

The distribution of wages in June 2023 showed that 34.7 per cent of formal employees in Malaysia earned below RM2,000, marking a decrease of 3.6 percentage points from the 38.3 per cent recorded in June 2022. Concurrently, approximately 7.9 per cent of formal citizen employees earned wages exceeding RM10,000. Meanwhile, the percentile analysis indicates that the median monthly wages of the highest wages recipient group (90th percentile) is at least five times higher than the median monthly wages of the lowest wages recipient group (10th percentile) and at least three times higher than the median monthly wages of the middle wages recipient group (50th percentile). In addition, the lowest wage worker category earned the most significant increase of 17.0 per cent year on year in June 2023. This indicates that the median wages for this group has risen sharply from RM1,282 in June 2022 to RM1,500 in June 2023.