Some really obtuse discussion is going on among people who have not had the experience of even running a pisang goreng business, suffering costs, having to pay workers salaries and other basic things related to business. People who do not even understand basic ideas of "Selling Price Less All Costs = Profit" are talking wild stuff about setting minimum wages.
Here is an example :
PETALING JAYA: The proposed minimum wage should be at least RM900 per month, says MTUC. The amount would help to lift the poor out of poverty, its president Mohd Khalid Atan said yesterday. “We will not accept anything less than RM900. “If it is going to be below RM900, what's the point of the Government trying to become a high-income nation?” he asked.
I say Mohd Khalid Atan, I also have a question for you. Why do you stop at RM900 per month bro? Why not set the minimum wages at a comfortable RM2500 per month. Hang buang masa saja minta gaji minima RM900 sebulan? Letak saja syarat kita nak gaji minima RM2500 sebulan.
Come on man, Khalid. You are the President of the MTUC. Takkan the President of the MTUC only wants to ask for a miserable RM900 per month as the minimum wages?
Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan Khalid Atan is actually a penderhaka. Khalid ini sebenarnya tak peduli langsung nasib pekerja dan ahli MTUC. Dia minta gaji minima RM900 sahaja sebulan. Gaji minima RM900 boleh beli apa? Lebih baik kalau gaji minima jadi RM2500 sebulan. Bolehlah kita beli TV, bayar yuran kolej, beli perkakas rumah yang lebih baik, beli kereta, pergi bercuti 'Now everyone cannot fly' dengan Air Asia dan banyak lagi. Tapi Khalid Atan minta gaji minima RM900 sahaja.
The question is how did Khalid Atan get this magic figure of RM900?
Ok lets move ahead a few steps. Here is more rational thinking about minimum wages.
"MEF executive director Shamsu-ddin Bardan .. echoed concerns raised by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over the negative impact of minimum wage on Malaysia's economy.
Even in America the introduction of minimum wages about 50 years ago caused serious unemployment problems in their country. There is always a residual unemployment rate of about 5% in America. This residual unemployment is caused by the imposition of minimum wages. But that is America - the most advanced economy in the world.
Malaysia is completely different. We are NOT America. Here we also have serious racial imbalances. (Remember in Malaysia everything has a racial element). Our worker productivity is falling. But which racial group is suffering the most? Our education system is failing miserably. But which racial group is failing miserably the most?
Dont believe me? Here is another report from today's Star. Read for yourself :
- Graduates emerging from the national education system are failing to meet the expectations of prospective employers due to a lack of critical thinking skills and poor communication.
- “.. six out of 10 graduates from Malaysian universities taking as long as six months to find a job. “The other 40% take even longer,”
- “.. universities are churning out graduates who don’t have the requisite skills to enter the workforce. “.. lack of proficiency in English limits their ability to communicate beyond the borders of Malaysia .. lowers their confidence and curtails their ability to add value in the workplace,”
- .. many new graduates lacked the critical thinking skills required to keep up in a constantly changing and increasingly competitive world. “What’s the point in having good academic results when they can’t communicate, can’t conduct a proper conversation and have no confidence?” — Bernama.
Now let me ask you - which racial group do you think they are talking about here? Ada ke anak China yang baru lulus belajar dari University tak tahu nak cari kerja? I dont think so. I just met a young Chinese girl "new graduate" who possibly has quite a few job offers (New Zealand grad with excellent language and interpersonal skills). So she can pick and choose what job she wants. Dia nak jadi investment banker sahaja - nothing else. And she is shopping around. I dont think the report from The Star here is referring to her.
So even our university graduates cannot find employment. Dont forget : which racial group? Now, if university graduates cannot find employment, then what about the hundreds of thousands of SPM leavers who do not qualify to go to university or college? Depa nak cari kerja di mana? Nak jadi Mat Rempit kena ada motor dulu. Tak ada motor tak boleh jadi Mat Rempit pun.
This is the situation in the country folks. And now Mohd Khalid Atan the President of the MTUC wants the minimum wages to be raised to RM900 per month? Ok Khalid this is what will happen. Now if I want to hire a salesgirl for my shop I will advertise : Kelayakan : Ijazah First Class Honours. Gaji : RM900.
Why should I hire an SPM holder or a PMR holder for RM900 for a salesgirl job when there are so many thousands of unemployed university graduates who can be hired for the same job? Even the Government's 'Unemployed Graduates Scheme' (Skim Perintis) only pays the unemployed graduates RM800 per month. So now the university graduates will be putting the SPM holders out of work. Once again : which racial group?
But here is the real troubling news :
- The Government has decided on the national minimum wage and the details will be announced by the Prime Minister.
- .. did not elaborate if a fixed amount had been reached by the Government ..
- .. all relevant factors such as cost of living, inflation, demographic trends, the effects on employers and the economic impact were taken into account during deliberations.
- “We believe there is basis for this (minimum wage) but we don't want to make a rash decision,”
- Govern-ment was looking at a minimum wage of between RM800 and RM1,000 for some 3.2 million workers in the private sector.
- Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Sham-suddin Bardan warned that some 200,000 small-time employers are likely to cease operations as they could not afford to pay higher salaries.
- He added that the implementation of an across-the-board minimum wage would incur a production cost increase of between 30% and 40%.
Other than Dr Mahathir's comment above, the most sensible statement has been made by Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Sham-suddin Bardan.
Shamsuddin feels that up to 200,000 small time businesses will shut down. Assuming each small business provides employment for five people, it means that about 1.0 million people will be made jobless. I agree fully with Shamsuddin here.
How exactly will this happen? Lets take a Tom Yam stall - the main stay of the ekonomi Melayu in many places.
Say a Tom Yam Stall employs two PMR qualified kids at a salary of RM400 each (RM800 per month). The Tom Yam stall sells 30 bowls of Tom Yam a day. After paying salaries, the Boss fellow who runs the stall may pocket say RM2000 per month. With the RM2000 he has to feed his kids, pay for school, pay for this and that. Despite being Boss of a Tom Yam stall, he is barely making ends meet.
Now comes the Government's grand idea to raise the minimum wage to RM900 per month. Overnite the Tom Yam stall's salary costs have gone up to RM1800 per month - an incremental of 125%.
The problem is just because the Government had a spark of genius, does it also guarantee that the sales of Tom Yam will also go up by 125% (to match the increased salary costs)? The day after the Minimum Wages are implemented, will the sales of Tom Yam magically increase to say 40 bowls a day? Not likely at all. That is not how the world works.
The SPM holders, the PMR holders who work in the Tom Yam stalls will suddenly become "high income" workers - as per the Prime Ministers wishes. The PM would have waved the magic wand : "By the powers vested in me I decree that you shall be high income".
So on the morning the Minimum Wages are imposed, all the Tom Yam stalls in the country (and all the kedai emas, small factories, furniture dealers, plastics factories, fish sellers, jagung rebus sellers, kedai kopi, three star hotels, backpackers motels, bus companies, kedai gunting rambut etc) will all see a huge jump in their salary bills WITH NO ACCOMPANYING INCREMENT IN THEIR SALES. Kos niaga akan melonjak naik tapi jualan perniagaan pula tak naik.
What will happen? A few things can happen :
Scenario 1. The Tom Yam stall will have no choice but to call their suddenly "high income" PMR and SPM qualified workers and say, 'Guys you are all high income now. Congratulations. But our sales of Tom Yam have not doubled or tripled. You guys are "high income" now but my business remains the same - not high income. So I cannot afford to employ you any more. You are fired."
Then not being able to afford to hire workers anymore, the Tom Yam stall will also shut down. This is what Shamsuddin Bardan meant when he correctly said, "some 200,000 small-time employers are likely to cease operations as they could not afford to pay higher salaries."
So now three people become unemployed - the "high income" SPM qualified workers plus the Boss of the Tom Yam stall. Taking Shamsuddin Bardan's figure of 200,000 businesses closing shop, up to 1.0 million people are going to become unemployed. Folks this is NOT an Insha Allah situation. This is a certainty. It will happen. Just wait and see.
Scenario 2. The Tom Yam Boss will say "Haiyya sekarang gaji sudah tinggi, tapi jualan Tom Yam pula sama juga. Tak naik pun. Habis macam mana saya nak bayar gaji pekerja saya? After thinking for like two seconds he will say, "I know. I will increase my prices of Tom Yam." Why? Because costs have incerased lah - that is why. I have to cover my costs"
Folks, the Tom Yam stall is not the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat - which dishes out free money to the poor. The Tom Yam stall does not have a magic wand. The Tom Yam fellow lives in the real world.
He has to cover his costs so that he can pay his "high income" PMR and SPM qualified workers their higher salaries. When he raises the prices of his Tom Yam, it means inflation. Dulu Tom Yam lima Ringgit, sekarang naik jadi lima Ringgit setengah (RM5.50). That is a 10% inflation rate already. Folks, this WILL happen. This is NOT an Insha Allah situation. This is a certainty.
All around the country, businesses will raise their prices to cover the "high income economy" minimum wages.
(Bro, pikiaq lah sikit. Minyak naik 20 sen satu liter pun harga barang naik gila. Gula naik lima sen satu kilo pun harga barang naik gila. Ini pula gaji setiap pekerja naik DUA ATAU TIGA RATUS RINGGIT SEBULAN harga barang tak naik ke? Hangpa sekolah kat mana?)
Folks, if these minimum wages are imposed there is going to be double digit inflation in the country. There is going to be economic chaos.
Harga Tom Yam akan naik, tambang bas, teksi semua akan naik, harga sayur, ikan, daging, handphone, TV, kasut, baju, beras, ubat gigi etc semua akan naik gila. There will be rampant inflation in the country. I predict double digit inflation.
So before, those earning RM500 would pay RM5.00 per bowl of Tom Yam. Now they are earning RM900 per month (earnings increase of 80%). The wage bill for employing them has increased by 80%. Surely the price of the Tom Yam will increase at least 10% to RM5.50.
Multiply this by all the products that you can find in a supermarket - there is going to be crazy inflatio. So at the end of the day, the gains made by imposing a minimum wage will come to nothing. It will be back to square one.
Workers get high income salaries but the prices would have all increased.
When inflation goes to the sky, all the other monthly salary earners in the country (fixed income earners), especially the 1.0 million Civil Servants will also suffer serious financial difficulties. Harga naik, gaji tak naik, terasa lagi sempit, tak boleh nak bernafas.
In brief, if the minimum wages are implemented, a few things will happen :
1. small businesses that employ two to five workers will be forced to shut down because they must pay higher salaries with NO increase in their sales. About 200,000 businesses can be affected (according to the MEF).
2. maybe about a million people will become unemployed.
3. This new 1.0 million "SPM and PMR qualified" unemployed will compete for jobs with the over hundred thousand unemployed university graduates already floating around in the market.
4. there will be rampant inflation in the country - maybe up to 10% or more. This will effectively neutralise the benefits of a higher minimum wage.
5. Fixed income earners like Civil Servants will also suffer the effects of higher price inflation.
My suggestion is : Just leave things alone. Every time the Government starts having any kind of wet dream, people get nightmares and the country suffers. A higher income is only possible if you become more productive. Increase the productivity of our workforce.
Teach them useful skills, marketable skills. Teach them to be useful and productive members of our society who can contribute positively in society. That alone will be sufficient to make them 'higher income'.
Teach them English. Drop the Agama indoctrination. Teach them the extremely high economic value of good discipline. Teach them to be on time, to look at all human beings as potential customers and business partners, irrespective of race, religion, language or whatever. Cut the crap and teach them to cut the crap as well.
44 comments:
Bro Syed:
This is what Najib and Pemandu meant by the creation of a high income society. You start with a (relatively) high minimum wage, and force prices to go up across the board. Everybody justifies their prices through their costs, so a plate of nasi lemak jumps from RM 2.50 to RM 3.50 overnight. The knock on effect means property prices will keep going up due to inflationary hedges, and then rentals will also go up commensurate with the capital costs.
In the end, we have a jump in per capita income from US$2,400 per month to US$3,500 per month which brings us closer to the definition of "first world" status.
Who are those who will suffer under this scenario ? The guys who dah pencen lah. Suddenly these people find out that their savings are not enough to last through old age.
Why do you think property prices are going through the roof ? People have no faith in money being able to keep its value....
Godfather
Tun M slalu kata... THINK!
Tapi depa ni malas nak pikir. Itu pasal jadi macam nih.
Belah kerajaan malas nak pikir. Belah pembangkang, takde otak nak pikir.
Adoiiii....
Pakcik & Makcik Gerai Tomyum tak boleh naik harga, tak boleh bayar gaji (min wage) - senang aje... bergaji orang asing RM500 sebulan..
Jika Pakcik & Makcik naik harga, takde pelanggan datang, tutup gerai... takpe... orang asing ganti buka... bergaji orang sendiri, tidak ikut undang min. wage dan sekarang tauke orang asing juga.
Although your discussion is not on Lynas (leaving the politics & eco arguments aside) but the whole argument pro-Lynas is that is creates jobs... not sure how many but JOBS!! Majority will be low paying blue collar jobs(cheap in comparison to Australia paying the same kind of labour force dollar for dollar), no? And if the "natives" don't want the jobs, then the "new native" takes them? Verses the tax breaks over 12 years and hiring 300-500 workers, what kind of economy of scales are we looking at? This is just case in point that a piece meal view is taken.
Yes, I agree, leave the economic eco-system alone unless we have a solid game plan to lead the country to a high skill economy. How can you make adjustments when you have a sizeable unregistered alien workforce & fluid borders compared to other countries.
To compare salaries for IT professionals, see where Malaysia stands http://www.financetwitter.com/2012/02/highest-salaries-globally-where-should-you-work.html
.."Cut the crap and teach them to cut the crap as well.." this has got to be the best line I've read all day. Thanks, Dato :)
Though I would vote for an opposition candidate, notwithstanding the fact I dislike Anwar as much as I dislike Mahathir, I would vote for you, you would be a winnable candidate. But unfortunately BN has a phobia against choosing likewise candidates.
Outsyed, yes please, keep wages as is. PEMANDU & govt can promote high income, but in our industry only tv stations get to share the wealth not the industry practitioners a& workers.
For last 15 years we have been working on very low budgets, same budget with extremely thin profit margin. WE cant even keep staff n office for long cuz they get pinched by big companies with better offer. And we had spent money training them. Cheh. Big TV contracts given to those who r cronies or who put pressure on chief of tv stations , by making noise in press. The rest of us beg for crumbs.
Crumbs means a production company gets 13 hours and favoured company get 400-1000 hours.Thsi practice have been on going and nothing can stop this cronism since work is not by creative merit.
The only people who benefit are the artistes, their pay demand keep increasing. And our production expenses and cost of living have been shooting ahead of our already thin income.
The more Tv station demand for popular artistes, the more the artistes charge us.
And Tv stations take away our rights to our creative work for pittance.If we demand for our right, they ignore you la.You dont get called back. Where is the high income earners?
Artistes also should get their rights to repeats of their shows. But they dont. All these are happening even though we talk about going global la.
Pemandu people and the Ministry of finance dont understand the problem, for the last 15 years? Surely they do.
All other sectors get consideration for inflation cost of living. We dont. While production houses have to make do with budgets good for monkeys. We have no right to repeats of our work. Is this daylight robbery or not?
Even when they pass the copyright act, no one question why is there nothing to protect copyright for creative visual work? It's a shame that parliament and dewan negara go thru all these with eyes closed.
Yes you are right this new minimum wage will drive most of us to close shop. Many have already closed. Its true, new grads are like they have learned nothing in Uni. We are left to train them if we want to hire them.Then big brother companies take them.
Today we struggle to pay epf even when we dont have consistent income bec of the way tv projects are given out. We have to do other business to keep our creative juices running.Those politically connected get thousands and hundreds of TV hours as contracts, while 80% get crumbs. Those connected to political bodies also get preference.
Most of my friends have given up doing things creatively as it cost money and since those who get the huge production hours contract do such lousy jobs and are rewarded.
Since you r so smart , please also suggest to govt- to allow smaller companies a reduced EPF contributions and reduce our coporate tax. To survive monthly also already really painful.Keep wages as is, please la.
DEAD & ALIVE TV PRODUCERS.
Waiting for Malay Spring but without Anwar.....
Nik Rahmoh
Look at our education system and the end result it produces, unemployable graduates by lorry loads. What happened to the billions of RM poured into MRSM, UiTM and the many universiti awam. Answer is we have lousy teachers and educators. We have lousy education system and we have clowns becoming Education Minister. We expect our children to be excellent in English when their teachers shy away from using this language? The malay graduates from the local universities never being exposed to the thing called competition and meritocracy so how to compete for jobs after graduation? They have the government to provide them the jobs. The non Malays don't have such job insurance, they have to live and learn to compete from day 1, year 1 in SRJKs. That is how we learnt we have legs to stand on without crutches and we can run when we can walk unaided.
Melayu bila?
Minta maaf sekiranya melampau, this post is meant to fellow Malays to try and realise their ability to succeed and not otherwise.
I'll take your financial ideas but not your religious ideas.
Salam Tuan,
Immigration Dept nightmare.
More opportunities immigrants, worse still of the illegal kind.
Thank you
Freddie
Tuan Syed,
Pls read this. To quote from the article,
“We are now creating future citizens who are more concerned over form than substance”.
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2012/3/4/education/10746168&sec=education
BRAVO! Thank you for putting it in layman's terms.
I've got a question: When did this "minimum wage" thing come around? And how and why? I know elections soon, but was this an opposition issue and our dear PM must jump to look good. Honestly, if opposition says jump, you must go even higher?
bro Syed,
the tomyam stall wont close (unless if the tomyam stall mmg tak sedap, doesnt justify the price)..in fact, more and more people can afford to buy more tomyam..look at Malaysian, they can afford buying cars which double or tripled above price sold overseas..
selling more tomyam means, higher income to the tomyam owner, and the tomyam owner can afford to pay more their worker.., then more people can buy more tomyam..this is cycling effect of the economy, if you ask me..
Yes inflation will be rise but this can also offset by higher pay rise..
Those cannot compete in the business has to shut down..they need to accept this..the one that still success in their business is also a human, no different from the rest - it just the brain differs one and another..
look at japan or UK..their cost of living 4 to 5 times higher than us, but the salary also higher by the same multiple than us..
Those who affected, may be minority malaysian, so thats where Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat and Wang Zakat will play their role..the government earn more money from tax collections, so can afford to give more BR1m to Malaysia..U may want to read record breaker tax collection recently..
When i give my comment here, i didnot look at racial perspective..why? 1 Malaysia maah..we are same..
So Syed, what if the tomyam sales become better?
My question to Gov - are they ready to face the negative consequences to the implementation of this? Read Syed's blog and ask urself, are u ready or not?..Dont be like the Selangor PR government, they terminate Alam Flora's contract with the intention to save costs by hiring other contractor, but they dont have other contractor to work for them..who get affected?
when the gov decide to cut sugar subsidy by 10 sen, the teh tarik naik 20 sen, and a teh tarik does not consume a kg sugar..
thats increase in profit alone could help them pay higher salary to the worker..but the rakyat will blame government about due to now teh tarik mahal..
but instead, government want to cut subsidy by different method..force company to pay more to their worker..kerajaan earns more tax money to cover increase in sugar subsidy, but the teh tarik price will increase too..
this time rakyat doesnt blame government..heheh
No fluency in English, no job?
I just had tea yesterday with my Singaporean friend, who, among his other responsibilities, interviews potential staff to fill front-line and customer service posts in his company (which, incidentally, is a major player in Singapore's service industry).
He told me, over caffe lattes at Starbucks, that all the Malaysians he had interviewed had an abysmal command of English, which made them totally unsuitable for front-line and customer service jobs.
And these jobs pay entry-level salaries of between S$1,300 and $2,000. Which is pretty substantial when converted to ringgit.
His solution - recruit Filipinos, Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese (the latter 2 being surprisingly more fluent in English than the Malaysians).
Elite2 mentekedarah belum puas menyusu -senang lenang sampai ke 7 generasi bwat undang2 camni lah jadi.
i just love your post SAA
gelak pecah perot.....
hangpa sekolah mana nii ? ?
"Say a Tom Yam Stall employs two PMR qualified kids at a salary of RM400 each (RM800 per month). The Tom Yam stall sells 30 bowls of Tom Yam a day."
You must give better examples. There's no way anyone can survive selling just 30 bowls of tomyam a day; that would be for charity. What about cost of goods?
Also, you fail to take into account upward selling price revisions, just as sugar and roti chanai prices went up after part removal of subsidies and rise in world prices of flour etc. In the end, competition will sort out the players in any market.
Your hypothesis fails because you fail to take into account the success of countries like Australia, Norway, Finland, Sweden etc. The world is not made up just of Europe and USA. You can't quotes failures without mentioning successes.
We should stop exploting our youth with $400 a month basic wages. That's highway robbery!
Syed..aku setuju bab yg atas2 tu..tp bab buang agama tu aku tak brapa stuju..hang tau pasaipa, sebab la ni semua org malaysia kalut pasai agama..hang buang saja agama dri sekolah mcm hang buang english la dr ppsmi..puak cina mata sepet dengan india tuhan tangan banyak marah gedegang2..hang pun skali la..hang buang agama dari sistem peljaran, aku brani jamin esoknya kerajaan malaysia jatuh..
Well, better leave it to the market forces on the proper remuneration level. In my kampong the poor folks are only earning between RM400 - RM750 but they are happy as the costs of living currently are acceptable to them. Their only unhappy days were when slumberjack jacked up the price of fuel to RM2.80 per liter few years ago causing the food prices to jump sky high with no easing down when the fuel price was scaled down few months later. Like the kampong folks use to say ` let the water find its own level` or else we will find an alternative government after GE13
Najib tak perlu akur dng mtuc mereka bukan pangkah bn pun.
Problem is our leaders are having the same malas berfikir DNA. Tambah pula the bumi have the same malas DNA.
How to improve Syed if majority of us malas and tambah pula our leaders are of no hope. Tak lepas diploma pun boleh jadi YB. How to formulate good policies when we have these crooks with otak nak kayakan sendiri dulu.
Dont think so..the Bangladeshis, the Myanmmar fella, the ,vietnamese and who else, they being cramped like shit in a room with crap food. Its called free on board and food ! All of these for a salary of less than RM 600. While the Malays and Indian boys are being told they are bunch of lazy morons for not wanting to take those jobs. For a salary of 2K today in KL, you may survive but barely! So what the fuck are you talking about? Is it because you earn money thru providing foreign workers? Slave trade aint gonna make it to heaven, assholes! Similarly, look around whos doing all the snatching, robbing and raping dude? Your kind shithead
Hahahah. i think not only did you point out the consequences but, in one swing, explain why a high income nation doesn't mean that our salary will increase by sitting on our hands. And also point out the effect of increasing our salaries while sitting on our hands.
Please note all malaysian.
By your own logic, which group do you think this minimun wage will most benefit? Isn't it true the g'ovt has aways been looking after this group. With the NEP, ekonomi of the non is affected. With the many privileges & easy money from g'ovt, many of them never really have to play catching up at all. Now minimun wage not only affect the ekonomi non but ekonomi melayu as well. Now this group is demanding their kins to be real. ha!
Its pure economics and common sense
Macam duit daun pisang
Nanti nanti satu cawan kopi jadi RM10
Tuulah..politik tamak sekarang ni
mengejar hasil jangka masa pendek saja
Tuan Syed,
Very true..as a small business operator, I anticipate the minimum wage implementation much like you pointed out.
The assumption the tomyam boss will sell more tomyam because more people can afford is off the mark. Do you sales can increase just like that?
I also doubt there will be only be 10% increase like you suggested. Not only wages increase, raw material will be as well. Should there is a 20-30% jump in wages, raw material cost will also go up. If it amounts to 40% of total cost, that's another 10%. All in all, there will be 30-40% total cost hike.
I have been thinking of closing shop ever since this minimum wage had been mooted. Better to go 'makan gaji'..no worries.
God help us all!
Liteweight 123
Wat.. no more (Indon) immigrants for a certain * economically more advanced* racial group to whack the life out of???
Salam Tuan Syed,
Good that you brought up this issue sir.I read several research papers on min wage but they found contradictory situation against yours.When several states in the US legislated the min wage law,the researchers found that the relationship between unemployment & min wage is not significant.Bear in mind that these research were conducted after the min wage law had been passed.In a recent 6-year window research by MIT showed evidence that employment level is stable before and after min wage legislation.The research was done focusing on the restaurant sector as this sector is labor intensive & most affected by the min wage law(as you demonstrated by your simplistic tomyam stall example). You gotta buy this Tuan Syed,it's MIT!(The paper: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00039)
The first to pass min wage in the US was the state of Massachusetts in 1912,other states followed in a few decades after that.They had the same arguments we are having between politicians,academicians & the rest of the country.Your argument that the US is always having 5% unemployment rate because of the min wage is unconvincing & without concrete evidence.
In a study done in the UK testing the r'ship between min wage & profitability,there is a significant reduction (as expected) but there is no significant evidence of increase in unemployment.
Some economists argue that min wage will increase productivity.Your arguments portrayed a perfect economy.In a less perfect world,the owner of the stall will try his best to maintain his profit margin by finding the best price for his tomyam ingredients,extending the hours of his business & will try to win more customers by giving better service.Now he has to smile to every customers & can't make them wait for setengah jam for a bowl of tomyam.Or else people will go to his competitors.If he's not willing to pay the wage,he will lose his workers who will go to Kak Mek kedai sebelah who is willing to pay the min wage.Fans of the tomyam stall will get better service & perhaps more delish tomyam,the workers can breathe a bit with the min wage & tomyam stall owner is forced to perform better.A win-win situation for all?Well,you will say no if you're the stall owner,coz you need to work harder to get the extra profit or soon your business will perish.Isn't that what you want Tuan Syed? A better & competitive Malays businesses? This is one way to tell them to "cut the crap."
Last note: Psychologists have found that people have tendency to see patterns that support simple theories & preconceived notions,even where they do not exist.
Very last note: Pardon me with my abysmal English,I'm a local grad.But even local grads need better arguments than what you have here Tuan Syed.Further,the best civilizations of the past have always incorporate religion into their lives.You must look more into Rasulullah saw & the civilization he started,sir.He's the absolute perfect model.I've never read writings you quoted him.You always quoted Al Quran,but you also need to quote our Prophet.As Aishah r.a said "He is the walking Al Quran".
Jazakallah khair.
Your points are certainly arguable. We have to find the middle path. Between economic gain and enslaving another human being. I am all for minimum wage, as long as the rate is reasonable. A no minimum wage system is a pure capitalist where the rich will enslave the poor. A full scale minimum wage like those of socialist country on the other hand will kill productivity and fairness in the society.
Without proper minimum wage, it will result in disparity of job distribution. Why would one wants to work as labour and yet earn less money while some work in accond room and earn more? As a result, everybody wants a degree. More universities are open, entry requirements are lowered so more people can work in accond room and earn big salary. Leave the labour job to indons and bangalas because they are low income. So what happen? Our market is flooded with substandard graduate as below par students are admitted and with the increasing number of students, quality of education cannot be maintained, plus garbage in, garbage out. Excess of substandard graduate results in the statistics of 6 out of 10.
When labour jobs are left to the foreigner, there you have our country flooded with mat indons, bangalas, burmese, nepalese. They are beginning to take over part of our country or cities. Crime rate become high as these people earning low income have to survive by other means.
In the end, our country get screwed. Graduates are not getting job. Those got job has low salary due to excessive demand. Everybody wants to become white collar. Our country is flooded with crime prone foreign workers and illegal. Everybody also want to go to business as the wage is low. By paying RM 400, they can get someone to work for them for 1 month with 6 days of working, whereas a meal for 10 person can easily cost more than 400. So this low income worker got no choice but to opt for part time, either by legal means or illegal means. So again crime rate will increase. With low wage, some have to work multiple low wage jobs to meet their end need. They have no time for family. His wife has to go out to work in few low pay jobs as well. So left their kids unattended and end up becoming bohsia, bojan, mat rempit.
Should I go more? Sometimes we failed to see the wisdom and only looking for quick gain. We are afraid that if we give people more, we will end up poor.
I will let you all ponder.
allo syed,
-hahahhahaha, you and mahadey really an item. mahadey already has "lost touch with reality". mahadey is still alive and kicking but his brain is still frozen solid way back in the 90's. step up and move forward, keep moving forward to maturity, opening up new doors and doing new things, dude.
-mahadey period without minimum wage is over, dude. so simply because most nations, the developed and even developing nations have minimum wage laws, except bolehland, a nation that wanted to get the developed nation status so very much. this is some embarrassing fact, dude.
-in short most nations world wide already have this law in place. the objective is for the law to stipulate a minimum wage that is fair and just sufficient for the worker to be able to have a reasonable life. a life not so much different with others of being able to afford the basic necessities and requirements of basic needs. which was reasonable for "a human being in a civilised community" to live in "frugal living". the only consideration should be the welfare of the worker and their families and dependents, and nothing else. what we are talking about is minimum wages - not the actual wages that a worker should be getting. the purpose of stipulating a minimum wage is to ensure that workers are not exploited by their sob mf employers who wants at every opportunity to pay an unjust low wage or even probably nuts. this is an aspect of capitalism. anyhow even this minimum wage is set by law and despised by the capitalists, it's still failed to meet the requirements of a living wage. even though the lowest working class positively benefited from this minimum wage, they're still unable to afford a specified low-cost housing, food, utilities, transport, health care, and recreational. in the rural arrears, rm900 is above the poverty threshold but for people in the cities, this amount is well below the poverty line.
-capitalists, entrepreneurs, employers or wannabes, and even tomyam and goreng pisang sellers who are against this minimum wage are nothing more then parasites if not viruses. a successful parasite is one that is not recognized by its host, one that can make its host work for it without appearing as a burden. lower then that, these capitalists are merely master of slavery. anyone can become an entrepreneur, capitalist, businessman or whatever but ensure enough capitals are at your disposal otherwise just get lost, nobody cares. but what is law for if it's not broken. use your imaginations, if there is a will there is a way. illegal and legal foreign slaves are ready for you.
-the supply and demand of labors/workers to determine the fair wages do not work anymore in bolehland. there are simply too many supply and with foreign workers in the millions exaggerating this problem. race-bias discriminatory hiring practices by the non-malay private sectors against the malays for whatsoever reasons compounding the problem. nowadays, it's the employers world where they can pick and choose between those who they wish to hire and nobody can do a damn thing about it. due to intense competition for jobs the wage/salary becoming lower and lower while stuff and services moving up with inflation and such. the gov and everybody knew that majority of business enterprises are immoral bunch and selfish. only this minimum wage law will be able to protect labors/workers rights. bolehland should get rid of the foreign workers asap and this moves will make the supply and demand in the local labors/workers advantage. automatically the minimum wage will increase from rm900 to rm2000.
-capitalism cannot be given a free rein on bolehland economy. so many ugly faces have been taking advantage of capitalism in making the rich, ever richer and the poor, poorer.
Syed,
This is why the smart professionals and skilled Malaysians including Malays are migrating to Australia...
Just to share this…
The Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (the Standard) - http://www.njmandco.com.au/files/AustralianFairPayandConditionsStandard.pdf
“The Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (the Standard) is a legislative safety net of minimum wages and conditions of employment.
The Standard is enforceable under the Workplace Relations Act 1996.
Employers making new workplace agreements must provide entitlements which are equal to or more favourable than the Standard…”
Is Bolehland’s gomen and MTUC benchmarking itself with International Standards or are they still stuck with their Jaguh Kampung mentality...
Comparing themselves with the 3rd World Standards?
“Pay peanuts and you get monkeys...”
You be the judge.
Shalom.
The cost of maintaining a prisoner is approximately RM600 p.m. A prisoner don't pay toll, not pay house rental, no fuel expenses, no need to change shirts etc. Include all that, the minimum wage should come to about RM1,200. The workers work to generate economy for the country. Don't make people who work have a feeling that 'it is better in the prison'. Govt can afford to maintain those prisoners. Remember that !
rm900 salary...
1.sewa rumah paling bangsatlah=rm400
2. naik public transport paling cikai rm 5 sehari,sebulan=rm150
3.duit makan rm5 lah,sebulan rm 150
balanced=rm 200,,mcmana nak bagik makan anak bini,belanja anak sekolah,,,,,org2 kaya,,boss2 cubalah berfikir n hidup dlm alam nyata
Tuan Syed,
MTUC ni main tibai saja . Actually local pun blh dapat gaji more than 1000 per month in manufacturing sector. Memang basic pay bagi pekerja kilang is less than 900 but biasanya ada banyak allowances such as elaun kedatangan, elaun makan and some of the employer kena hire van untuk bawa pekerja dari kawasan pendalaman which can cost them RM9 per day. I think if government continue which minimum pay employer will cut all the allowances tapi for company yg ada worker union going to be much problem.
I am not so agree kalau kita kata cost untuk menggajikan pekerja asing rendah. Majikan basically employed pekerja asing sebab pekerja tempatan low productivity . Datang kerja ikut suka bila ada kenduri satu kampung tak datang kerja . For manufacturing sector this factor is very crucial sebab product output nak kena achieve. I really hope Government mengkaji dengan lebih pay structure dgn lebih mendalam and understand more about labour cost per product before make anu announcement . My prediction if Government proceed with minimum pay bukan setakat small trader ,SME pun blh lingkup.
Anon 10:02:00 PM,
No need for compulsive comments. I can see you are an angry chap. So do I but be sensible okay. We are a nation with considerate people despite our wealth being snared by the greedy politicians from both BN and PR. We should exercise our vote thoughtfully for GE13. Politicians will never change and only say nice things for us to hear. They are traitors of the nation and should be punish. The nation wants a leader can be relied upon and fear without favour.
haha, we are already a high income nation compared to where we are during 60s, 70s & 80s..
the different is, Najib government wants Malaysian to be a high income nation more faster in future compare where we are rite now..
in other word, Najib is bringing the future closer to now...save some future time to now..
every 1 ringgit pour to market can become multiple -- u can imagine the effect of economy if RM900 being thrown to market..the system change,pricing will be changed, living standard changed and so on..
Malaysian's standard of living will be like in the UK or US..Foreigner will never look down on us anymore..We are rich..
More tax collection earned by governement can be used to give allowance to penganggur -- this is what happen to UK, US and AUstralia..gov can afford..
what we are doing rite now is to get closer to them but now faster..if we continue like what we are doing now, by the time we reaching 2020, they already in 2040..we can never be able to catch them..
Walaupun banyak blog post saudara yang saya sependapat tapi kali ini tidak.
1. U (n other typical pejuang Melayu yg terlebih Melayu walaupun hanya Melayu di segi perlembagaan) terlalu perlekehkan bangsa Melayu. Lebih2 lagi dengan alasan lemah sains dan bahasa Inggeris. Anak saya seminggu lepas konvo dah keje di Citibnk. Sekolah Melayu je. Local grads. U give one example. Thus, one example from me.
2. Kalau betul seperti diramal mengatakan semua sme n penjaja tutup, saya pasti peniaga yang lebih efisien akan ambil alih. No more peniaga untung atas angin yg pemalas. That is good. Ain't it?
2. Kedai runcit di luar bandar dan Pakcik makcik tomyam kebanyakannya pendatang pun. Gerai haram. Lesen Majlis saja org tempatan dibayar RM300 sebulan. Guna pekerja import pendatang juga. Bawa balik duit keluar Malaysia. Tutup lagi bagus.
3. At least 11 of my friends n relatives struggling dengan anak 2 atau 3, isteri tak keje dan gaji RM800. Macamana isteri nak keje kalau taska pun 400 sebulan utk 2 orang anak. I wonder yang gaji RM600 keje kilang macamana. Mereka ini sentiasa diugut kena pecat untuk digantikan dengan PATI gaji lebih murah. Jgn otak fikir kajian di KL sahaja. Berjuta lagi hidup di luar KL.
4. Bagaimana dengan majikan yang pentingkan untung semata-mata? Majikan ada 2 akaun. Satu akaun untung sikit. Satu akaun tersembunyi untung besar. Belum cerita lagi majikan haram. Yes, banyak kilang haram kalau u tak tahu. Melayu Cina India org Malaysia terpaksa keje di kilang haram utk sara keluarga. takda socso or kwsp pun sanggup asal tak merempat. Kalau menganggur nanti pakar2 ekonomi tuduh mereka ini pemalas dan memilih keje pulak..
5.Harga barang naik? Apa nak hairankan. Hello!! Sejak bila harga barang tak naik? Gaji minima tak minima barang tetap naik menggila. Saya pun dah tak ingat bila kali akhir makan ikan laut. Mahal punya pasal.
6. I need to cool down first.
apa punya cadangan rm900 tak masuk akal kurangx rm9000, tapi kalau duk melangut tak buat kerja tak produktif denda sama dia atas kerugian baru padan.....hang tak bayak gaji cakap sedap cuba duit hang lima ret tentu kira le.......
tak masuk akal cadang rm900 kurangx rm9000 baru padan. tak reti keja jenis melangut tak payah....apa macam. rasanye tak biasa bayak gaji nie tapi kalu duit sendiri lima ret pun tentu kira punya!!!
Syed, i have to disagree.
Malaysians have been institutionalized for far too long.
We are looking the easiest way out.
Without regulation by government, business owner will never employ local Malaysians. They're not in the business of charity. They will try their best to minimize operation cost, maximizing profit.
Look at Australia, they have white people doing the road works, plumbing, house building and lots other things we passed on to Indonesians and Banglas.
They could get things done faster and cheaper by employing indonesians which is just a boat ride away like Malaysia, but they don't. Because they can't.
But again, they have very little corruption.
Get the corruption out first, i don't mean in the government alone, this includes all the businessmen (the source of all corruption), then competition will flourish.
Hi,
Minimum pay? I believe it is a very subjective matter.
Lets take two persons X and Y.
They earn the same salary and do the same job but one is broke all month long and the other has a little saving .
The salary of the nepalese guards is around 1200rm and that of locals is 800rm.Why is this so?
A philpino maid earns 1200plus[with sundays off] but an indon maid earns 400rm [no offdays].Why is this so?
In outsourcing companies at cyberjaya ,the difference in salaries are very wide between local grads and oversea grads by as much as 3000rm. Why?
Minimum wage is not productive.
The government staff got an increase in cola of 300rm which started the ball rolling in general price increase.
The civil servants got a housing loan of 400k, prices of houses now start at 400k.
What and how the private sector employees to get a loan of 400k ,they must be earning at least 7k per month.
I believe the government is responsible for all the inflation caused by their vote getting tactics.
Only the private sector will be hit hard by the stupidty of government planning.
we pray for higher income society, not pray for higher productivity
Syed:
The logo for Malaysia should be "Zero class politicians in a world class country but not any more"
We have an abundance of natural resources. We used to have people resources that can speak the world languages.
Why have we not progress? The answer is simple. Politicians lined their pockets instead of the country. They make rules to ensure the citizen will be doomed forever.
Stop the race sh*t. Stop the religion sh*t. Stop the promoting of Bahasa Malaysia. Just run the country properly and allow the country to prosper.
If we provide our citizens with the tools to compete world wide, we will. If we provide useless tools like BM which no one speaks nor care about we will fall behind further. If we teach useless subjects in schools, we will end up with many useless students.
I can assure you that international companies will stop coming to malaysia once they realize that they cant communicate in english. Bye bye Malaysia....hello Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
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