“Only ministers’ salary increase here!” New Zealand Raises Minimum Wage & M’sians Are Annoyed

Disclaimer: This piece reflects the writer’s opinion and opinions submitted by other readers. It does not reflect the opinions or beliefs of WORLD OF BUZZ. 

Needless to say, we’ve all been a little jealous of New Zealand this year, what with Jacinda Arden’s expert handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, the country is Covid-19 free and the people no longer have to wear masks with life almost returning to normal there.

Well, another perk of being a kiwi is that starting from April 2021, the New Zealand government has announced that it will raise the minimum wage to NZ$20 (RM57) per hour. According to HRM Asia, this is a bid to support its citizens as the nation recovers from the pandemic.

Over on Malaysian Twitter, Ekonomi Rakyat posted a tweet regarding this issue saying that the increase of minimum wage will benefit 175,000 workers while the living wage has been set at $22.10 (RM63.56) per hour. Needless to say, Malaysians are not happy and frankly, they’re a little jealous as well.

“While in Malaysia, even when you only earn the minimum wage of RM1,200 a month, you should be very grateful. Even to earn this, one should work for more than 10 hours a day.”

As of February 2020, the Malaysian government has increased the minimum wage for major towns under 56 city and municipality councils, reported ASEAN Briefing. The minimum wage is now RM1,200 per month, an increase of RM100 from 2019. The rate for employees earning an hourly rate has been increased to RM5.77 from RM5.29.

Malaysians protesting the rm1,050 minimum wage in 2018.

There are also Malaysians who believe that our minimum wage is still low due to unethical politicians who are corrupt.

“In New Zealand, they conduct studies and raise the citizens’ minimum wage. In Malaysia however, they conduct studies and raise the MINISTER’S salary!”

You can check out here to find out how much exactly our current ministers are earning based on information released by SPRM. The most disheartening part of the comments were the countless Malaysians who said they’ve become much more tempted to migrate to New Zealand after hearing this news.

Whether or not they were joking is another issue but can we really blame them? Malaysians get angry when another succeeds overseas but how are they expected to succeed when it’s so hard for them to get compensated fairly for their talent here?

Who do we blame for this? Let us know what you think!

Also read: “Tall buildings but the rakyat are still poor”, Netizens Bash World’s Second Tallest Tower Being Built In M’sia