The union’s CEO, Andrew Lo, said the employers’ reasons against salary disclosure were “self-contradictory” and “self-serving”.

“For example, just how it can be seen as employer data violation is beyond comprehension,” Lo said in a statement today. “Are they saying that displaying prices of goods at shops and businesses also violates their business information and discretion to set prices?”

He brushed aside concerns over the possibility of stiffer competition, saying that salary disclosure would enhance competition and promote a free market instead.

‘What they are really concerned about is that it may enable more competition as they also unwittingly admitted that it may give rise to an increase in wages.

“It can only mean that they want to prevent job seekers from shopping for the best offer,” he said.

Putra Business School’s MBA programme director Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff had been quoted as saying that public and private sector employers should be required to disclose salary rates of jobs on offer.

He said it would function as a preventive measure against the exploitation of graduates joining the job market.

Yesterday, FMT reported that employers and a business group thought it was not a good idea.

Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Christina Tee said the proposal would “stiffen the market”, while Malaysian Employers Federation president Syed Hussain Syed Husman voiced reservations over the confidentiality of employers’ data.