Malaysia Introduces Minimum Wage as Najib Eyes Election

Malaysia will introduce its first
minimum wage to benefit an estimated 3.2 million workers,
joining neighbors Thailand and Vietnam in strengthening support
for low-income households as elections approach in Southeast
Asia’s third-largest economy.

“The lowest-paid will now be guaranteed an income than
lifts them out of poverty and helps ensure that they can meet
the rising cost of living,” Prime Minister Najib Razak said,
announcing the plan in a speech in Putrajaya, near Kuala Lumpur,
ahead of tomorrow’s Labor Day holiday. “The proposed rates take
into account the needs of business, while ensuring that no
Malaysian is left behind.”

The government has been preparing for a possible early
election in May or June, before the due date in early 2013,
according to four officials who spoke in March on condition of
anonymity because the talks are private. Najib, 58, has raised
civil servant salaries and pensions, waived school fees and
boosted handouts for the poor in a bid to extend the ruling
party’s 55-year lock on power.

The pay plan comes two days after police arrested 512
people who took part in a street protest in Kuala Lumpur to
demand cleaner and fairer elections. Najib’s government enacted
legislation in April banning such protests after police detained
more than 1,600 people during a similar rally in July.

Workers on Peninsular Malaysia will get a minimum 900
ringgit ($297) per month starting in October, said Najib, who is
also finance minister. The rate will be 800 ringgit in some more
rural areas, including the eastern Sabah and Sarawak states, he
said. The government has already begun distributing one-time
500-ringgit ($165) cash payments to the poor after announcing a
record 232.8 billion-ringgit spending plan for 2012 in his
October budget.

Wealth Gaps

Asian nations from Thailand to Taiwan are introducing or
raising minimum pay to address wealth gaps in a region that is
leading global growth.

Thailand increased its minimum wage to 300 baht ($9.75) a
day in Bangkok and six provinces in April, and by an average of
40 percent in the rest of the country. The move partly fulfilled
a campaign

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-30/malaysia-introduces-minimum-wage-as-najib-eyes-election

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Posted by RobertButler on Apr 30 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry