Minimum wage in Malaysia: current rate and who it covers
Eternity Job Career Team20 October 2026 · 7 min read
A clinic receptionist in Subang Jaya took a job last year on what the owner called "RM1,500 plus RM300 allowance". It sounded like RM1,800. It was in fact RM200 below the legal minimum, because allowances don't count. The clinic wasn't being especially cunning. Plenty of small businesses still structure pay the way they did before 2025, and plenty of workers accept it because the total looks right.
The minimum wage is one of the few parts of Malaysian employment law that is short enough to learn completely. Here is all of it, as of October 2026.
The current rate: RM1,700 a month
The Minimum Wages Order 2024, gazetted as P.U. (A) 376/2024, sets the minimum at RM1,700 a month. It came in two stages:
From 1 February 2025, for employers with five or more employees, and for any employer carrying out a professional activity classified under MASCO 2020, regardless of headcount.
From 1 August 2025, for every other employer. Until then, employers with fewer than five employees could pay RM1,500.
That deferral has ended. Since 1 August 2025, RM1,700 applies to almost every employer in the private sector, whatever its size.
The "professional activity" category is wider than it sounds. The Ministry of Human Resources' FAQ lists the MASCO Major Group 2 professionals it covers, including science and engineering, health, teaching, business and administration, ICT and legal professionals. A three-person architecture practice or a two-doctor clinic was bound from February.
The hourly and daily equivalents
Not everyone is paid by the month. The Order sets equivalent rates for daily and hourly workers:
Monthly RM1,700.00
Hourly RM8.72
Daily, by days worked in a week:
6 days RM65.38
5 days RM78.46
4 days RM98.08If you are a part-timer paid by the hour, RM8.72 is your floor. If you are paid by the day and work a five-day week, it is RM78.46 a day.
What counts towards it, and what doesn't
This is where most underpayment happens. Under section 2 of the National Wages Consultative Council Act 2011, the minimum wage means basic wages. The ministry's FAQ is blunt about it: it does not include allowances, incentives or any other additional payments.
So the receptionist's RM1,500 basic plus RM300 allowance fails. The clinic needs to pay at least RM1,700 as basic, and anything else, whether a transport allowance, an attendance bonus or a meal allowance, sits on top.
A few other rules worth knowing:
If you are paid only by piece rate, tonnage, task, trip or commission, with no basic wage, your total monthly pay must still be at least RM1,700.
You cannot agree to less. The FAQ says an employer paying below the minimum commits an offence under section 43 of the Act even if the employee consented.
It covers non-citizen workers in the private sector on the same terms as Malaysians.
It does not cover domestic workers, who are excluded by paragraph 2 of the Order.
Overtime pay sits on top too, and it is calculated from your own rate. If your basic is RM1,700, your hourly rate for overtime is RM1,700 divided by 26, then divided by your normal daily hours. Our overtime guide works through the formula.
Does it apply in Sabah and Sarawak?
Yes. Unlike most labour law, the Minimum Wages Order is national. It is made under a federal Act and expressly refers to the Sabah and Sarawak labour ordinances, and it is enforced by the labour departments in all three regions. The rest of this site's employment-law guides cover Peninsular Malaysia, because Sabah and Sarawak have their own ordinances for leave, hours and overtime, but the minimum wage figure is the same everywhere.
What's coming: RM2,000 in 2027
Budget 2027, tabled by the Prime Minister on 9 October 2026, proposes raising the minimum wage from RM1,700 to RM2,000 from June 2027, Bernama reported. According to EY's summary of the budget, micro, small and medium enterprises with annual revenue below RM50 million will be exempted from the increase. The budget also proposes a minimum starting salary of RM2,500 a month for graduates and semi-skilled workers.
None of this is law yet. A new rate needs a new Minimum Wages Order, and the exact start date, the hourly and daily figures and the precise wording of the MSME exemption will be set there. Until it is gazetted, RM1,700 is the rate you can enforce.
The RM50 million revenue line will catch a lot of people. Most of the SMEs where minimum-wage jobs are concentrated earn well under it, so the RM2,000 rate may at first reach mainly workers at larger companies, many of whom already earn more. If you work for a smaller firm and assumed your pay would rise next June, it may not.
How to check your own pay
Look at your contract and payslip together. Find the line labelled basic salary or gaji pokok. If it is below RM1,700 for a full month, or below RM8.72 an hour, or below the daily figure for your working week, you are being underpaid, regardless of how large the allowances are.
Partial months are the one legitimate exception. If you joined mid-month or took unpaid leave, the Employment Act lets your employer pay a proportion of the month's wages, so a smaller first payslip can be correct.
How to report non-compliance
Start by raising it with your employer in writing. A WhatsApp message counts as writing, and a calm one sent to the owner often fixes a payroll habit that nobody had revisited since 2024.
If it isn't fixed, the minimum wage is enforced by the Labour Department, JTK. In Peninsular Malaysia you can lodge a complaint through the channels on JTKSM's complaints page: the Working for Workers app, the SISPAA public complaints system, email to jtksm@mohr.gov.my or the 03-8000 8000 hotline. Sabah and Sarawak have their own labour departments, listed in the ministry's FAQ. Have your offer letter or contract and your latest payslips ready.
If you are owed money, the arrears can be claimed through the Labour Court, which handles monetary claims between employers and employees.
Employers take this more seriously than you might expect. Under the 2011 Act, an employer convicted of paying below the minimum can be fined up to RM10,000 for each employee affected, with up to RM1,000 a day for a continuing offence after conviction, and for a repeat offence up to RM20,000 or five years' jail, under sections 43 to 47 of the Act. Section 44 also lets the court order the employer to pay you the shortfall, backdated.
Every job on Eternity Job shows its salary range on the card. If a full-time role is advertised below RM1,700 a month, it is advertising an unlawful wage, and you should treat the rest of the ad with the same suspicion.
Above the minimum
For most white-collar roles in the Klang Valley, RM1,700 is well below what you will be offered, and the more useful question is what the market pays for your field. Our guide to answering the expected salary question covers how to work that out and say it in an interview. The minimum wage still matters for you, though, if you are hiring a first assistant, supervising part-timers, or checking the pay on a younger sibling's first job.
