Nurul Izzah Anwar (PH-Permatang Pauh) had asked if Malaysia would be looking into introducing living wages, similar to the practice in Australia and Luxembourg.

She also said waiting until the end of the year to table results of a study by the National Wages Consultative Council on the minimum wage would be too late, considering the increase in the poverty rate as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had previously defined the living wage as the level of income needed for a household to afford a minimum acceptable standard of living.

In 2018, the central bank had estimated that the living wage in Kuala Lumpur for a single adult was RM2,700, while for a couple without a child it would be RM4,500, and for a couple with two children, it would be RM6,500.

BNM estimated that more than a quarter of households in Kuala Lumpur were earning below the living wage.

According to Awang, the government first needed to consider the capability of employers to pay the living wage.

He said the government also had no choice but to table the results of the study on minimum wages at a Cabinet meeting at the end of the fourth quarter.

Awang added that the consultative council was mandated by law to carry out a study on the minimum wage once every two years.

Referring to Australia and Luxembourg, Awang said these were developed countries that had a smaller population, so it was wrong to make a comparison with them.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said 580,000 households from the M40 group had slipped into the B40 lower-income category due to the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ismail said this comprised 20% of M40 households, which previously had a monthly household income of between RM4,850 and RM10,959.