KUALA LUMPUR: The minimum wage for workers should be based on productivity to ensure that industries do not lose their competitive edge.National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) chairman, Tan Sri Amirsham A Aziz, said the government should act wisely before determining a minimum wage to ensure that industry growth would not be jeopardised.
“The government has to think wisely. Should they impose a minimum wage regardless of productivity? I believe the government will not do that, they will probably just kill the industry unnecessarily,” he said at a media briefing here yesterday.
Amirsham was responding to calls by certain quarters including CUEPACS who are seeking for a minimum wage to be set, and explained why the minimum wage was not included in the New Economic Model (NEM).
“If you just put up a minimum wage without contribution of productivity, it can lead to disaster for a lot of employers and you might be out of competition,” he said.
Under the NEM, NEAC has proposed the setting up of the Transformation Fund to increase workers’ productivity.
The fund can be used to help companies enhance their workers’ skills, which in turn can result in increase in wages. The recommendation may not necessarily be in line with the government but in this case, “What we are saying is, even if we have minimum wage, it has to be based on productivity,” he said.
Commenting on Bumiputera participation, Amirsham said the NEM would further improve entrepreneurs’ capacity and would not sideline other races throughout the implementation.
He said NEAC would be looking at the best approaches that can support the key economic areas targeted in the NEM.
“In the NEM, there’s no quota for ownership but what we want to see is —Bumiputera business capacity is supported so that they can do better business. For example, funding and Internet access are among the areas needing to be improved so that they could provide better business environment and speedier operations, Amirsham said. — Bernama