PUTRAJAYA: Median monthly wage of formal sector employees increased 4.8% to RM3,000 in June 2026, said the Department of Statistics, Malaysia (DoSM) yesterday.
During the same period, it added, the number of Malaysian formal employees increased to 7.2 million persons, representing a 3.3% year-on-year growth from 6.97 million persons in June 2025.
A comparison of median monthly wages by sex indicated that male formal employees, comprising 55.1% of total Malaysian formal employees or 3.97 million persons, earned a median monthly wage of RM3,000.
In contrast, female formal employees accounted for 44.9% of the total or 3.23 million persons and received a median monthly wage of RM2,964.
Formal employees aged 45 to 49 years continued to register the highest median monthly wage throughout the second quarter of 2026, recording a median monthly wage of RM4,000 in April 2026, and RM3,945 in both May and June 2026.
DoSM said the highest year-on-year increase in median monthly wage was registered among employees aged 50 to 54 years, while the median monthly wage for employees aged below 20 years remained unchanged at RM1,700 since February 2025.
By economic activity, it said, the mining & quarrying sector, which accounted for only 0.5% of the total formal employees, recorded the highest median monthly wages at RM6,722 in June 2026.
On the other hand, the agriculture sector, which accounted for 1.8% of total formal employees, reported the lowest median monthly wage at RM2,282 during the same period.
Across the states, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest median monthly wage in June 2026 at RM4,245, followed by Selangor at RM3,245 and Penang at RM3,000.
The lowest median monthly wages were recorded in Kelantan (RM1,827), Perlis (RM1,864) and Sabah (RM2,045).
The share of Malaysian formal sector employees earning below RM1,700 per month fell to 8.2% in June 2026, down 2.2 percentage points from 10.4% in June 2025.
Furthermore, percentile analysis indicated that the bottom 10%% of Malaysian formal employees earned RM1,700 or less per month, whereas those in the top 10% earned at least RM9,600 per month.
Therefore, employees in the 90th percentile earned more than five times the wages of those in the lowest-wage group, underscoring the gap in monthly wages between the highest and lowest earners.
Overall, Malaysia’s formal labour market performance remained stable and resilient in the second quarter of 2026, underpinned by continuous growth in formal employment and median monthly wages.