RM1,500 minimum wage to be implemented in one or two months, says Saravanan

Photo: Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM1,500 minimum wage plan is being finalised and may start in the next one or two months, said Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.

"The Cabinet has discussed minimum wages for three consecutive meetings.

"The Prime Minister and entire Cabinet remain committed to its implementation.

"It may be implemented within the next month or two," the Human Resources Minister said when replying to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson) in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (March 17).

Anwar had earlier pressed Saravanan to give a specific date for when the RM1,500 minimum wage would take off.

However, the minister explained that he could not provide a specific date without first getting a prior mandate from the Cabinet to do so.

He noted that the matter was being finalised.

"We want to make sure that employers will not exploit the situation by reducing their manpower by laying off workers once the minimum wage comes into force," he added.

Saravanan reiterated that there may be certain sectors in the economy which will be exempted from implementing the minimum wage, adding that the exemption for these sectors may cover a period of about two years.

Earlier this week, Saravanan informed the House that the RM1,500 minimum wages would be implemented in due time as the government was committed to enforcing it by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the minister said that unemployment has decreased by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 4.3% compared to the same period in 2020, which was at 4.8%.

"This meant that unemployment fell from 760,700 to 696,400 for the same period," he revealed.

To further reduce unemployment, Saravanan said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) had launched an employment and insurance incentive scheme which is expected to benefit some 300,000 job seekers.

Apart from this, the government will continue with the apprenticeship and job guarantee programme which have proven successful, he added.

Under the apprenticeship programme, employers will be given a RM900 incentive for six months if they employ school leavers or graduates aged between 18 and 30 as executives.

Those under the programme must then be offered six months' employment with a minimum salary of RM1,500.