Malaysia's Minimum Wage Still Low, Cost of Living Rises to 7.9%

<p>&nbsp;Malaysia ranked 59th out of 67 countries in the minimum net salary ranking for January this year, which is RM1,323 per month, the same as last year.</p><p><br /></p><p>According to Picodi Malaysia, the study in shopping is based on a comparison of the minimum wage with the increase in the price of basic groceries and the cost of living.</p><p><br /></p><p>In his statement, the price of shopping items in January 2024 increased to 7.9% compared to January 2023.</p><p><br /></p><p>A basket of basic food products needed to live life is as much as RM437.58 which is 33.1% of the minimum net salary of low-income Malaysians.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the beginning of 2023, it recorded as much as 30.6% of the minimum wage. This shows that the increase in Malaysia's minimum wage does not keep pace with the increase in the price of goods in the market.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, the three countries that occupy the highest rung in the ranking of minimum monthly wage increases are Argentina which is 128.4% ($297). Turkey ranked second with 99.9% ($596) and Nigeria with 83.3% ($68).</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, Indonesia recorded an increase of 7.1% ($187) and Thailand as much as 2.4% ($203).</p><p><br /></p><p>In Picodi Malaysia's study, the ratio of the most comfortable grocery basket to the minimum wage is in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand.</p><p><br /></p><p>These countries can afford to spend less than one-tenth of their minimum wage on basic grocery needs.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are also countries that use more than half of the minimum wage to buy basic goods such as Kazakhstan (54%), India (58.5%), Vietnam (65.6%) and Armenia (74.6%).</p>