GEORGE TOWN: The National Wage Consultative Council (NWCC) is now preparing a report for the cabinet on the suggested changes in the minimum wage.
Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said the NWCC, a tripartite council consisting of representatives from employers, employees and the government, convened at the end of last month.
"Wages are increasing. The NWCC met at the end of June and is now preparing a report to cabinet on the suggested minimum wage changes."
He said in his keynote address at the Northern Region Human Resources Conference 2024
'Empowering the Malaysian Workforce: Innovations and Strategies for Sustainable Growth', here today.
It was reported that a review of the minimum wage had been completed, and a final decision would be made after assessing recommendations from the NWCC, as well as taking in the views of both employers and workers.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/1060233/minimum-wage-review-f...
Sim said they were also piloting the progressive wage policy this year.
"We do not believe in raising wages using law alone.
"Yes, the minimum wage mechanism is crucial, and we have seen the positive effect in the bottom 10. But, the government cannot raise wages by fiat alone.
"Hence, this year, we are pioneering the progressive wage policy, which started in June. Essentially, this is government paying employers so they can pay their employees higher wages," he added.
He said workers taking part in this programme would have to go through 21 hours of skills training.
"We want to ensure that higher pay commensurate to up-to-date skills to improve productivity.
"Currently, we have about 430 companies registered and 1,200 workers benefiting from the new policy," he said.
Sim also said the latest labour force survey released yesterday showed that unemployment was at a five-year low at 3.4 per cent.
He said the number of employed persons stood at almost 16 million - the highest ever in the country's history.
He also said he was aware that some had expressed concerns over the supply of migrant workers.
"We now have almost 2.5 million migrant workers in Malaysia, which is the 15 per cent limit set for the number of migrant workers.
"Next year, the government will implement a multi-tier levy system to encourage businesses here to train local workers and reduce dependency on low-skilled migrant workers," he said, stressing that the market was short of 30,000 engineers.
"We are creating more jobs than we can produce the talents needed for these jobs.
"This is essentially good news to the workers because they have more bargaining power when demand exceeds supply.
"But for businesses, we are dealing with three major challenges in the labour market: a tight labour market, high labour cost, which will only get higher, and skill-job mismatch," he added.
Meanwhile, Sim said his ministry was committed to enhancing skills training by streamlining their RM2.6 billion resources dedicated to this sector, aimed at improving the delivery and effectiveness of skills training programs.
"We envision a highly accessible and affordable one-stop ecosystem for high-quality skills training available to all Malaysians," he said.
"This is a significant ongoing effort," he added.