The latest Salaries & Wages Survey commissioned by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) revealed that the value of median monthly salaries and wages received by staff have grown at 7.7 percent per annum. This indicated a pay hike from RM2,000 in 2016 to RM2,160 last year.

The survey showed that there was a slight salary gap between male and female employees in 2017, with 8.2 percent and 7 percent high growth to RM2,170 and RM2,145 respectively. Meanwhile, the value of average monthly salaries for employees with higher or tertiary education stayed growing by 3 percent to RM3,400.

Apart from that, employees in the urban area were seeing an increasing growth rate for median monthly wages up to 6.6 percent per annum to RM2,260. On the other hand, those who work in more rural areas were only seeing a salary rise of 3.6 percent to RM1,400.

See: Fewer Women in Higher-Paying Roles Lead to Gender Wage Gap: Study

The Salaries & Wages Survey was an annual study conducted through household approach aiming to collect information of monthly salaries and wages received by working Malaysians from their main jobs. It is carried out using probability sampling covering all states in Malaysia, The Star Online reports.

In this survey, a paid employee is defined as a person who works for at least six hours a day or at least 20 days a month. So far, it is reported that the total number of paid employees in 2017 was 8.7 million persons.

Salaries and wages refer to wage rate consisting of the basic wages, cost-of-living allowances and other guaranteed and regularly paid allowances either in cash or in kind (food or lodging) as well as overtime payment.

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