Noor Azlan Ghazali said the wages are not commensurate with worker productivity.

“Productivity improvement is crucial for national advancement. However, if employers do not appropriately value productivity, efforts to increase it may not yield the expected results.

“In the long term, productivity improvement may no longer be a priority in career development,” he said in a Facebook post.

Noor Azlan cited the Bank Negara Malaysia 2018 annual report, noting that compared with several countries of similar economic status, Malaysian workers received lower financial rewards despite achieving the same level of productivity.

“For example, with the same productivity to produce output valued at US$1,000 (RM4,673.80), a worker in Malaysia is paid US$340, while in comparable countries, a worker is paid US$510.80.

“This lower reward for the same productivity occurs in almost all major employment sectors,” he said.

He said Malaysia’s low wages and inadequate compensation for productivity must be understood and addressed at a foundational level.

However, he noted that the issue was extensively addressed in the recent white paper on the progressive wage policy, which was presented to tackle the persisting low wage rates.

Yesterday, economy minister Rafizi Ramli said the progressive wage policy will be a temporary form of intervention to raise wages in certain sectors.

Rafizi said the policy was not a wage policy, but a “temporary” economic policy.

He said the progressive wage policy would help small and medium enterprises retain their talent base, as high talent attrition was a major problem for Malaysia.

The Dewan Rakyat passed the white paper by voice vote after 18 MPs debated on the motion.