And this minimum wage thingy...it's still a really BIG if when it comes to how the BN government operates. Probably it will become reality in another 10 years time or maybe after we celebrate the next 50 years of independence.
Anyway, back to what our minister said:
If the minimum wage is fixed at RM1,500, he said, employers must also be prepared to pay their factory workers and housemaids the fixed amount.I don't know about you Mr. Resource Minister, but if I had a maid and I needed to increase her pay by RM900, I would assume that my pay be going up by similar amounts - or at least a sane person would demand an increase from their employers. Or did I misunderstood how the minimum wage is suppose to work.
"Now with maids' salary being about RM600, women who earn RM2,000 still find it okay to go to work, but if minimum wage is fixed at RM1,500 these women would rather stay at home," he said.
Will the minimum wage policy be implemented only for people earning below a certain income bracket? And if that bracket has a threshold that doesn't go beyond "RM2000", then even I would think it's a stupid idea - or more accurately, we have a stupid government (which is not really a new discovery) and an even dumber Resource Minister.
But that's just my thoughts. I do believe that when politicians open their mouths to give "analogies", they should at least run it through their brain and if they have already done so, then perhaps they should run it through someone with a better one.
wow... u want them to implement minimum wage for all level? it will take yearssss to do the study on what is the right wage. and all the employers will jump.
ReplyDeleteit's a good idea though, but i think we are not there yet.
Haha...but that is the ideal case, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm not proposing implementing it for every level just yet. But I think his example was really meant to scare people into not accepting a minimum wage policy. Cause I should think someone earning RM2000 should have their salary increased as well, although not necessarily by RM900.
From his comments...I find that the government is really not serious about the whole thing. More study will need to be done for sure, but it's something that needs to be done and not swept away by making it 'sound' bad to have a minimum wage.
I don't think it's a matter of "scare" but the fact remains, how would productivity be justified with the new "minimum wage" ?
ReplyDeleteThough it sounds ideal to bring everyone to a decent level but the economical impact it can implicate is not just about making everyone happy.
Hi freethinker,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
On the economical impact of having a minimum wage - this is where we need a fair and comprehensive study on whether it's feasible and also how we can best do it. The problem is that our government either doesn't know how to do the study or perhaps they just feel it is too troublesome to change.
Minimum wage is not a new thing. Many countries implement it. My experience with minimum wage was when I was studying and working in the UK. And the UK government introduced the minimum wage only in 1999 - refer http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6425965.stm.
I believe we can leverage on the studies already conducted and use them as a start to see how we can implement something similar in Malaysia.
In my opinion, Malaysian workers are already getting paid much less than their counterparts in other countries. While this is one of the factors that multinationals are investing in Msia, we cannot continually suppress local wages - what with the rising prices of almost everything. For example, with the pay I'm getting I just don't feel that the Ringgit has much buying power.
We have the people, AND we actually do have the brains - but government policies have to change to make sure that we move up the ladder in economic, technology and productivity terms. Minimum wage can then be implemented slowly but in parallel.
It's not only about making everyone happy - it's really about being fair and about coping with rising prices in almost everything while our salary increments trail behind. And what's more, we start off at a pretty low wage base - since there is no minimum wage policy in place. Let's not even talk about the grossly inaccurate inflation rate that the government shows us every year.
By needing to implement the minimum wage policy, it forces the government to re-think a lot of their current lopsided policies. The more I write this, the more I wonder why do we even need a minimum wage in the first place if they have managed the economy better?