Median wages in formal sector rose 5% from Dec 2023 to Dec 2024
by NURUL NAJMIN ABU BAKAR
MEDIAN monthly wages in Malaysia's formal sector rose to RM3,045 in December 2024, up 5% from the same month last year.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the median wage increased from RM2,764 recorded in both October and November 2024, showing continued improvement in the labour market during the final quarter of the year.
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the whole of 2024, the annual median wage grew by 6% compared to 2023, based on data from the Employee Wages Statistics (Formal Sector) Report, Fourth Quarter 2024.
'This increase in median wages shows the labour market is improving along with economic growth,' he said in a statement.
The number of citizens working in the formal sector rose 2.3% year-on-year to 6.83 million people in December 2024, with an increase of 156,600 workers.
Male employees made up 55.2% of the total or 3.77 million people, with a median wage of RM3,045, while females made up 44.8% or 3.06 million people, earning a median of RM3,000.
Compared to December 2023, median wages for male employees grew by 3.4%, while female wages increased by 5.4%.
All age groups recorded wage growth, with the highest increase of 8.3% seen in employees aged 65 and above, whose median wage rose to RM2,982.
Employees under 20 years old saw their median wage increase for the first time since June 2022, rising by 1.8% to RM1,527, while those aged 45 to 49 earned the highest wage at RM4,082.
All sectors saw wage growth in the fourth quarter, with the mining and quarrying sector recording the highest increase of 9.6% to RM7,500, though it made up only 0.6% of workers.
The agriculture sector had the lowest median wage at RM2,382 but still posted a 3.6% year-on-year increase.
Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest median wage by state at RM4,200, followed by Penang (RM3,382) and Selangor (RM3,300), while Sabah (RM2,000), Perlis (RM1,764) and Kelantan (RM1,664) were the lowest.
In December 2024, 29.2% of formal employees earned below RM2,000 a month,a drop of two percentage points from the year before.
'The bottom 10% earned RM1,500 or less, while the top 10% earned at least RM10,800 which showed a gap of more than seven times,' he explained.
Mohd Uzir added that DOSM will continue improving wage data by using more administrative sources to give a clearer view of the labour market.
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