Average Monthly Salary of Malaysians in 2025

 

The total number of monthly salary and wage earners rose to 12.01 million, up from 11.96 million in 2024. Malaysians accounted for 10.38 million, or 86.4% of all full-time paid employees. The average monthly salary and wage of Malaysians increased by 4.1% to RM3,803 in 2025, compared with RM3,652 the previous year, according to the Salaries and Wages Survey Report 2025 published by the Department of Statistics (“DOSM”). The median monthly salary and wage increased by 5.3% to RM2,940 from RM2,793 in 2024. 

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

The services sector, which represents 71.5%, was the main contributor to the increase in the number of wage earners, rising by 1.8% to 7.42 million people. Meanwhile, mining and quarrying had the highest average monthly salary and wage at RM6,175, followed by services (RM3,993), manufacturing (RM3,357), construction (RM3,188) and agriculture (RM2,575), according to DOSM. 

In terms of skills, skilled workers, accounted for 36.6% of all salary earners, recorded the highest average monthly salary and wage at RM5,799, compared with RM5,582 in 2024. The semi-skilled category, which accounted for 55.6% of salary earners, recorded a 4.2% increase in average salary to RM2,714 from RM2,604, while the low-skilled category rose by 2.6% to RM2,184 from RM2,128. 

Selangor recorded the highest share of salary earners, at 25.6% of the total number of paid Malaysian workers, followed by Johor (13.6%) and Sarawak (7.6%). Five states recorded average monthly salaries and wages above the national level: Putrajaya (RM5,417), Kuala Lumpur (RM4,955), Selangor (RM4,258), Penang (RM3,912) and Labuan (RM3,887). 

It looks pathetic. With rising cost of living the average wage may not be sufficient to survive in large urban areas. Employers who are generous are few and far between. Large banks, for example, make RM4 billion a year but employees at mid-level or low-level are paid below satisfactory level. The next stage will be AI. The use of AI soon will result in many jobs including counter clerks, transaction officers and credit officers becoming irrelevant. The digital wave is going to affect many industries, and some will have to re-skill for the future. 

Reference:

Average monthly salary of Malaysians up 4.1% to RM3,803 in 2025, FMT, 21 Sept 2026