KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 23): In 2022, 93% of Malaysian employers granted salary increases, which was a significant increase compared to 2021, when only 65.2% of employers do so for their executive and 66.4% do so for their non-executives.

This was revealed in the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) Salary Surveys for Executives and Non-Executives 2022, which was unveiled on Nov 23. The survey revealed that the average salary increase for executives was 5.26% while for non-executives, the average was 5.35%.

“In terms of forecasted salary increase for 2023, the survey indicated a 5.44% increase for executives and 5.43% for non-executives,” said MEF president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman, who launched the 28th edition of the surveys.

“Approximately 90% of the surveyed companies attributed employees’ performance as the main criteria for determining executive and non-executive salary increases. The MEF Salary Survey also showed that more than 80% of the respondent companies granted bonuses in 2022,” said Syed Hussain during the launch.

The forecast for bonuses in 2023 for executives is 2.18 months, which was higher than the actual bonus in 2022 of 2.06 months, and for non-executives, the 2023 forecast for bonuses is 2.06 months, which was also higher than the actual bonus in 2022 of 1.77 months, he said.

Meanwhile, 70% surveyed companies were affected by the new minimum wage as compared to 29.7% that were not affected due to having already implemented it in May 2022.

The increase in salaries depends on workers’ performance, as well as the financial performance of the companies, said MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan.

"Many employers now use appraisal for increment to each employment," he said.

MEF also reported on the Minimum Wages Order 2022 in its surveys, and 53.4% of the respondent companies anticipated an increase in salary or wages cost.

"There are employers that have paid above RM1,500 as of May 1," said Shamsuddin. "That is why they are not affected as much by the minimum wage.”

He added that minimum wage will only affect employers that paid their employees lower than RM1,500 a month.

According to MEF, on company measures to cope with the minimum wage, the survey showed that 59.7% reduced their operating expenses, followed by increasing prices of products and services (48.8%), implementing cost-cutting measures (43.8%), and shift to technology-intensive production (36.8%).

The MEF Salary Survey for Executives was participated by 252 companies from manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.

Meanwhile, the MEF Salary Survey for Non-executives 2022 has 250 member companies.