YOURSAY | ’Our wages have stagnated for too many years.’
Rafizi: We can’t fix cost of living issues without progressive wage policy
apanama is back: Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli, you can fix the cost of living issues with current pay.
You are trying to avoid the issues by buying time with your new terminology, which is “progressive wage policy”.
What you advocate is surrendering on the cost of living issue by going for progressive wages over time.
This will result in higher production costs. Employers' associations may not agree with this. You mentioned this is "the most unpopular thing" upfront.
Later, you could wash your hands on this cost of living issue saying you had tried this policy but the cabinet rejected it. Excellent!
How about people in countries with a higher cost of living than us, but are able to cope without subsidies like Singapore?
You people are aware of cartels which control our food items. What happened? Any actions on these cartels? None.
You need to go after the cartels who are controlling the price. Manage all these first before talking about progressive wage policy.
Rafizi, you are actually out of touch with how the economy works in Malaysia as far as cartels are concerned.
Ringgit depreciation is one thing. But internally there are many issues under your control and you could do something.
You came up with this new policy. In January, you mentioned developing a strategy to lessen Malaysia's dependence on imports for raw food items.
What happened to this "developing a strategy?" Still in development or did you forget?
Rafizi, you are jumping all over the place as far as our economy is concerned. Either you get an adviser or hand over to someone more suited to understand our economy at ground level.
Newday: It is a tricky formula to get right, with even the most developed countries tinkering with this issue for many years.
The problem in Malaysia is that our wages have stagnated for too many years. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the struggles to deal with increasing costs of living were real.
Covid-19 and its fallout resulted in a dramatic leap in the cost of living, but as usual, our wages have stayed the same.
Former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and company had a superficial go at raising base salary but without any decent legislative framework.
It was more about getting votes in the 15th general election.
Then we have the employers who have also struggled badly over the past few years - supply chain issues and the rising cost of goods and raw materials have resulted in plummeting profit margins.
No wonder Rafizi stated it is the most unpopular thing he is working on.
We need fundamental change and changes to our wages and businesses need to be able to do more than just survive.
I am glad Rafizi is seriously working on this though. Long overdue.
Just a Malaysian: Everything boils down to one fundamental, which is value creation. Our country does not have enough people for it.
There is not enough release of energy and entrepreneurship to power growth in a positive way. There is too much dependence on the government for everything.
Too much mollycoddling of the masses.
Singapore, despite being a wealthy country, does not pamper the population and expose them to hardship to strengthen and grow them.
We are a nation of crybabies and softies. Always referring to history as a poor victim requiring aid all the time.
We always have to defend everything against everyone. This country will never stand tall until the population can look into the mirror and improve.
Shadowplay: Productivity of an economy is the answer to Rafizi, to sustain the cost of living from time to time.
Without “productivity”, how to have progressive wages?
A business entity can never give high pay to its employees if there's no productivity.
Apart from productivity, there are many other factors.
The cost of living for an economy is a complex one that needs expertise to administer. The government must bring back meritocracy into the system.
Your idea is too simplistic.
Mafeeah: What is your take on having monopolies? Wouldn't opening and increased competition result in lower prices? Why are approved permits (AP) and import permits being dished out selectively?
Do you think if you revamped and abolished all these, the cost of living would drop eventually? What do you think, Rafizi?
GreenWalrus9050: Totally. The employers in Malaysia are stingy. Big bosses get richer and richer at the expense of the workers who bring them wealth.
Share your wealth by paying people more. It’s the right thing to do!
BluePanther4725: Don’t forget another important thing: tax the rich more to help the middle-income and the poor.
The elite super-rich are all getting richer while the majority of people are struggling. The rich business people set high prices and low wages.
RedGopher0486: I agree with Rafizi but our private and corporate tax policies as well as income classification system need a complete overhaul too.
Hmmmmmmmm: Makes sense to me as a non-economist. Wages should have been increased progressively over the years but have been suppressed by the importation of cheap labour.
Now our wages cannot keep up with the prices of imported goods. But too sharp an increase too quickly may shock the system.
TheAxman: I’ve said this many times already. Inflation would not be a problem if we fixed the economy and wealth distribution.
Just look at the salary of graduates 30 years ago against what they are earning now. Did it grow as fast as the gross domestic product (GDP)?
It didn’t - so in whose pockets did the money end up?
So many things to fix - corruption, cronyism, poor-quality graduates and so on. Good luck!
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