Winding up his ministry’s debate at a special Dewan Negara session on the 12th Malaysia Plan mid-term review, Rafizi said employers need to raise their workers’ wages first, and then produce evidence, before the government could give them the cash incentives.

“The government will not give incentives just like that (without proof).

“This cash incentive is important to encourage employers, especially the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, to implement this policy.

“Since the allocation is determined by the government, it will not be a financial burden to the government,” he said, adding that the incentives would be implemented on a first-come, first-served basis.

However, the allocations would depend on the government’s fiscal capacity, he added.

Rafizi said any employer who met the conditions would get the incentives, unless the quota is already full for the year – in which case, the employer would have to wait until the following year.

He said the policy is also linked to productivity as workers were required to attend government-recognised skills training courses.

“They need to meet the training requirements to remain on the progressive (wage) payroll,” he said.

“Employees would then be able to enhance their talent and marketability, as well as increase productivity at work.”

Rafizi said this would balance employees’ push for higher wages against employers’ demand for increased productivity.

He also said the white paper on the progressive wage policy would be tabled at the next Dewan Rakyat sitting.

Rafizi said the policy would be explained to employees and employers to get their feedback.

“This is a really challenging matter,” he said.

“We need to plan properly to begin establishing a salary policy framework that will assist us in meeting the target of increasing employees’ compensation share to GDP (gross domestic product) by 45% within 10 years.”