While companies and the government play crucial roles in addressing salary disparities, Chiang said engineers themselves must demonstrate their value to justify a salary hike by assessing their own skills and contributions.
“(For example), are these engineers trained in BIM (building information modelling) technology?” he told a press conference for the Engineer and Marvex 2024 exhibition.
“Are they (engineers) able to use this technology and include it in their portfolio in terms of their experience and career development? So, I think employers want to see this before they raise the salary scale.”
Chiang was responding to a question on the steps being taken by employers that hire engineers to address salary gaps and improve remuneration for those in the profession.
Earlier in his speech at the exhibition’s launch, deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof called for improvements in the remuneration and salary structure for engineers.
Fadillah cited reports indicating that 35% of junior engineers in Malaysia earn less than RM 2,000 per month, and better pay is essential to attract more students to pursue engineering in their tertiary education.
At the press conference, Chiang added that market forces (demand and supply) play a significant role in determining salary increases and cautioned that young engineers’ expectations might sometimes be unrealistic.
However, he acknowledged that some young engineers are deserving of salary increases due to their intelligence, experience, and knowledge, while others may need to enhance their skills.
“I think the younger generation are intelligent enough to learn new skills. In fact, some of them are more AI-savvy than many of us,” he said.
“So I think they have the opportunity and capability to uplift themselves to the next level, but they must prove (that they deserve a salary rise).”
Addressing the regional salary gap, Chiang said Malaysian engineers often receive lower pay compared with their counterparts in countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, but noted that the work expectations, pace, and stress levels in those regions are significantly higher.