Malaysia’s wage subsidies total RM20.7 billion in payouts

The Malaysian government has handed out RM20.7 billion (US$5.13 billion) through its wage subsidy programme in 2020 and 2021 to date, benefitting over three million employees, said the Ministry of Finance. 

The third phase of the country’s wage subsidy programme will receive an additional injection of RM500 million (US$123.8 million) to include all companies affected by the nation’s Movement Control Order (MCO), which will bring the total sum of its allocation in the third phase to RM1.5 billion (US$0.37 billion).

The government has also allocated RM3.7 billion (US$0.92 billion) under its job creation programme under the country’s Budget 2021, which has just commenced, according to a government report. This sum will also include hiring incentives for employers. 

READ: Malaysia: Reskilling workers better strategy than wage subsidies

Earlier the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) called on the government to extend the wage subsidy programme for employers to three months from the one month period previously announced. 

“While we welcome the Wage Subsidy Programme 3.0, which has been extended to cover 500 employees in a company for one month, the FMM hopes for it to be extended for three months since there would be a cascading impact on businesses when they resume operations after the MCO,” said FMM president Soh Thian Lai.