Set RM3,000 monthly minimum wage for graduates, Sivaraj proposes

KUALA LUMPUR - Senator Datuk C Sivaraj has propose graduates to be offered a monthly wage of no less than RM3,000 to cope with rising cost of living.

"I stand by this and request the government to set a legal minimum wage limit of no less than RM3,000 monthly for bachelor's degree graduates," he said at Dewan Negara today.

He said the effort is in line with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's suggestion for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates to be paid a minimum salary of RM3,000 recently.

Sivaraj also welcomed the government's effort through several other initiatives in Budget 2023 to balance and control the price of goods.

"The government also needs to have a more developed initiative to increase the people's income, especially the young people," he said.

He said based on statistics from the Department of Statistics Malaysia in 2021, the number of graduates in Malaysia had reached almost 5.61 million, representing about 22 per cent of the country's workforce.

"The average salary of graduates had decrease by 10.6 per cent from RM5,020 to RM4,489 per month in 2020 while the median salary had drop by 11.3 per cent from RM4,300 to RM3,796 per month in the same year.

"I started working in 2003 which is almost 20 years ago and at that time, the salary for a bachelor's degree holder was about RM1,600.

"After 20 years, graduates earn about RM1,800 to RM2,000," he said.