Why is it that fresh grad salary in Malaysia has been stuck so low for so many years?

Question

My senior started at RM2500 ten years ago, and today fresh grads still start around RM2800-3200. Everything else naik but salary macam frozen. Why like that?

Single Mum Rina · Answer

Economist background here, let me give the unpopular but real answer. One, oversupply of degrees. We pushed everyone to get a degree, so a degree stopped being special. When supply is high, price (salary) stays low, basic economics. Two, our economy is still heavy on low-margin manufacturing and services, not high-value industries. Companies that don't make high margins simply cannot pay high salaries, no matter how kind the boss is. Three, the ringgit weakened over the years, so even when nominal salary creeps up, real purchasing power stays flat. Four, we have long competed for foreign investment by being cheap labour, which structurally caps wages across the board. The fix is not one generous company, it is moving the whole economy up the value chain, which is slow and political. So individually, the smart move is to get skills that are globally priced, tech, finance, anything remote-payable in USD, so you escape the local salary trap instead of waiting for the whole system to change.

Freelancer Kak Mimi · Answer

Because companies boleh get away with it lah, plain and simple. There are so many fresh grads chasing so few good positions that if you refuse the RM3k offer, there are ten others behind you who will grab it immediately. Supply and demand tak berpihak to us at all at entry level. Employers know this and price accordingly. It only changes when either the talent becomes scarce, meaning you have a rare skill they cannot easily replace, or when grads collectively stop accepting lowball numbers, which realistically will not happen because everyone has bills. So the individual escape route is to become the candidate they cannot easily replace, not to wait for the market to grow a conscience.

Mamak Nights Ismail · Answer

Part of it is honestly that we don't job-hop and negotiate enough as a culture. In some other countries people switch companies every two to three years and bag 20 to 30 percent jumps each time. Here, plenty of people stay loyal to one company for eight or nine years and receive a polite 5 percent increment annually that barely beats inflation. Loyalty is quietly punished in the current market, sad but true. The ones whose salaries actually moved are usually the ones who strategically changed jobs a few times early in their careers. Staying put out of comfort or fear of change is often what keeps people stuck at low pay for a decade.

Uncle Repair Bala · Answer

Cost of living has gone up but productivity per worker has not risen nearly as fast, so employers genuinely argue there is no room to pay much more without hurting the business. On top of that, a growing share of company profit flows to owners and shareholders rather than to workers' wages, which is actually a global trend, not something unique to Malaysia. Automation and outsourcing also cap entry-level pay because a lot of routine junior work can be done cheaper elsewhere or by software. It is a structural, systemic thing rather than just individual kedekut bosses. Understanding that helps you stop taking it personally and start focusing on building leverage through rare, valuable skills.

Why is it that fresh grad salary in Malaysia has been stuck so low for so many years?

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