Study: Mining Sector Has Highest Median Wage in M’sia at RM6.8k/mth, National Median is RM2.9k/mth

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) recently published its latest employee wage statistics report for the formal sector in Malaysia which revealed several interesting findings.

The latest Quarterly Employee Wage Statistics (Formal Sector) was for Q4 2023 and used administrative data sources obtained from relevant agencies such as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO).

The report itself is part of DOSM’s initiative to provide more comprehensive, granular and frequent wage statistics to meet increasing user demand.

The national monthly medium wage is RM2,900

For illustration purposes

According to the report, Malaysia’s labour market demonstrated continued growth in Q4 2023, recording a 2.5% increase from the same period a year prior.

Specifically, the total number of employed persons, including employees across public and private sectors, employers, own-account workers and unpaid family workers reached 16.35 million in Q4 2023.

Meanwhile, statistics compiled from administrative records show that the number of formal employees was 6.67 million persons in December 2023 (November 2023: 6.68 million persons; October 2023: 6.70 million persons) manifesting a 1.8 per cent increase from the previous year (November 2023: 1.8%; October 2023: 1.9%).

The median monthly wages for formal citizen employees in December 2023 amounted to RM2,900, a 4.9% increase from the corresponding month in the previous year.

Men earn 3.5% higher monthly median salary in Malaysia than women

Furthermore, the statistics showed that males accounted for 55.5% of the overall formal employees, totalling 3.7 million persons as of December 2023, with the median monthly salary being RM2,945.

In comparison, females accounted for 2.97 million persons or 44.5% of the total formal employees as of December 2023, with the median monthly salary being RM2,845.

This means that men earn 3.5% more than their female counterparts in our country.

Chinese Malaysians earn the highest median monthly wage at RM4,300

In terms of ethnicity, all ethnic groups experienced a year-on-year increase during the last 3 months of 2023.

The Indian ethnicity, which has a share of 7.8% of total formal employees, had the highest growth (6.1%) of median monthly salary to RM2,864 in December 2023.

Meanwhile, the Bumiputera ethnicity, which constituted 62% of the formal employees, recorded median monthly wages of RM2,427. That’s a 5.5% growth in December 2023.

Besides that, 28.9% or 1.93 million persons of formal employees were of Chinese ethnicity and earned the highest median monthly wages of RM4,300 in December 2023, reflecting a 5.8 per cent year-on-year growth.

The mining & quarrying sector records the highest monthly median wage at RM6,844

For illustration purposes

In terms of economic activity, median monthly wages witnessed positive growth across all sectors in Q4 2023.

However, the sector which stood out from the rest was the mining and quarrying sector which recorded the highest median monthly wages at RM6,844.

Furthermore, the sector also registered the highest year-on-year growth in December 2023 at  7.7%. However, the sector has by far the lowest number of formal employees at just 36,800, or 0.6% of the total number of formal employees.

The largest number of formal employees is in the Services sector, contributing 67.3% or 4.49 million persons and in terms of monthly median salary, the sector recorded a 5.5% year-on-year growth to RM2,800 in December 2023.

Check out the number and median monthly wages of formal employees by economic activity for Q4 2023 below:

Kuala Lumpur has the highest median monthly wages at RM4,045, Kelantan is the lowest at RM1,600

When viewed by states, the median monthly wages across all states recorded a positive year-on-year growth trend in Q4 2023.

3 states recorded the highest median monthly wages were W. P. Kuala Lumpur at RM4,045, Pulau Pinang at RM3,245 and Selangor at RM3,164. All 3 states exceed the national median of RM2,900.

In contrast, Kelantan, Perlis, and Sabah indicated the lowest median monthly wages in December 2023 at RM1,600, RM1,700, and RM1,882, respectively.

In terms of the number of employees, 3 states that recorded the highest number of formal employees were Selangor with 1.88 million persons (28.2%), W.P. Kuala Lumpur with 1.36 million persons (20.3%) and Johor with 0.71 million persons (10.6%).

So, what do you guys think of these latest statistics published by DOSM? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: “Chill, SPM isn’t everything” – Malaysian Man Who Failed SPM Brags About His RM3.5K Salary