Hanifah Hajar: Govt will not arbitrarily impose progressive wage policy

The progressive wage policy is aimed to incentivise the future of companies, she said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.

"We are not sure that this (progressive wage policy) is an initiative that can best be implemented, that is why we are implementing a prototype (pilot project) and we will evaluate and improve on it after that.

"By providing the best possible feedback and how we can increase its value, we will cooperate with the committee to further increase efforts to raise progressive wages," Hanifah Hajar said.

She was responding to an additional question from Datuk Andi Muhammad Suryady Bandy (BN-Kalabakan) who wanted to know what would be the fate of employees if a company chose not to implement the policy, and whether the ministry plans to impose a compound or fine for companies that do not implement the progressive wage policy.

Hanifah Hajar also said the progressive wage policy was introduced to reform the wage structure of Malaysian workers, it also acts as a complement to the existing policies, namely the minimum wage policy and the productivity-linked wage system (PLWS).

She said the main purpose of the progressive wage policy is to systematically increase the wages of private sector workers to enable the national economy to progress to a higher value chain, in line with one of the 17 radical shifts stated in the 12th Malaysia Plan midterm review, namely the availability of future talent.

"As announced at the last parliament sitting, the implementation of the progressive wage policy will begin with a pilot project from June to August 2024.

"The impact assessment of this pilot project will be carried out in September 2024 to ensure the availability of the policy before the implementation of the progressive wage policy as a whole is decided," Hanifah Hajar said.

She noted that so far, there are four Implementation Working Committees across ministries and agencies that have been established and are carrying out work to detail the implementation mechanism of the progressive wage policy.

These include Policy Development Working Committee, System Development Committee, Skills and Productivity Improvement Committee and Working Committee Annual Salary Increase Guide.

-- BERNAMA