Malaysia’s national minimum wage is RM1,700 per month, and that has been the rate for every private-sector employer in the country, including here in Sarawak, since 1 August 2025. There is no separate 2026 figure: the RM1,700 rate set by the Minimum Wages Order 2024 carried straight through into 2026 with no fresh increase announced. It works out to roughly RM65.38 a day on a six-day week, or RM8.72 an hour for part-time and hourly staff.
Part of our guide to Working & Money in Kuching.
That number applies to basic salary only. Allowances, overtime, commissions, and bonuses do not count toward it, which is the most common way employers get the calculation wrong. And it covers foreign workers on the same terms as Malaysians, which matters in Kuching, where a lot of restaurant, construction, and plantation work is done by Indonesian and Bangladeshi staff.
Key Takeaways
- The minimum wage in Malaysia is RM1,700/month in 2026, unchanged since it reached full nationwide coverage on 1 August 2025.
- It rose from RM1,500 in two phases: 1 February 2025 for employers with five or more staff (and licensed professionals), 1 August 2025 for everyone else.
- It is basic pay only. Allowances, overtime, and bonuses cannot be used to top a salary up to RM1,700.
- Foreign workers are covered on identical terms; domestic servants (live-in maids) are excluded.
- Sarawak’s median monthly wage sits in the low-to-mid RM3,000s, below Kuala Lumpur’s, and plenty of real Kuching jobs are advertised at or just above the RM1,700 floor.
- A single person living frugally in Kuching can survive on close to minimum wage, but it leaves almost nothing for savings, and it is a fraction of a typical Western salary.
What is the current minimum wage in Malaysia in 2026?
RM1,700 per month. The rate is set nationally, so it is identical in Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and everywhere else; Malaysia scrapped its old split between Peninsular and East Malaysia years ago. Broken down, RM1,700 a month is about RM78.46 a day on a five-day week, RM65.38 a day on a six-day week, and RM8.72 an hour for hourly-paid workers, per the Ministry of Human Resources.
One distinction is easy to miss. The RM1,700 is basic wage, not take-home and not total package. An employer cannot count a RM300 “transport allowance” toward the floor and pay a RM1,400 base; the Department of Labour treats that as underpayment. So if your contract reads “RM1,500 basic plus RM200 allowance,” that is not a legal minimum-wage salary in 2026, however it is dressed up.
When did the minimum wage go up to RM1,700?
In two phases across 2025. The increase was formalised through the Minimum Wages Order 2024 [P.U.(A) 376/2024], gazetted on 4 December 2024 under the National Wages Consultative Council Act 2011.
- 1 February 2025: RM1,700 applied to employers with five or more employees, and to all employers carrying out professional activities (the MASCO classification) regardless of headcount.
- 1 August 2025: RM1,700 extended to every remaining employer, including the smallest businesses. Until that date, firms with fewer than five staff were allowed to keep paying the old RM1,500.
The Ministry of Human Resources confirmed in mid-2025 that there would be no further deferment past 1 August, so since then the floor has been RM1,700 for everyone, with no carve-out left for small shops. Around 4.37 million workers were affected by the rise, according to government figures reported at the time of the announcement.
Who does the minimum wage apply to?
Almost every private-sector employee in Malaysia, with two notable groups handled differently.
Covered:
– Malaysian employees in the private sector, full-time and part-time
– Foreign workers, on the same RM1,700 as locals (see below)
– Contract staff and apprentices under a contract of service
Not covered:
– Domestic servants, meaning live-in maids and household help, who are explicitly excluded under the Order
– The genuinely self-employed and most gig contractors, who are paid per job rather than employed under a contract of service
– Civil servants, who sit on separate government pay scales rather than the minimum-wage floor
The exclusion of domestic workers is worth flagging plainly, because it is a real gap and not a technicality. A live-in helper in Kuching has no statutory wage floor at all, and pay for that work is set entirely by private arrangement. If you employ household help here, the RM1,700 number does not protect them, and that is the law as written, not an oversight you can assume away.
Does the minimum wage cover foreign workers?
Yes. The government has been explicit that the minimum wage applies to foreign workers on the same terms as Malaysian citizens. An Indonesian kitchen hand or a Bangladeshi construction worker in Kuching is legally entitled to the same RM1,700 basic as the local working next to them.
That is the law. Enforcement is the weaker part, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Foreign workers are the people least likely to file a complaint, most dependent on an employer who often also controls their accommodation and permit, and least able to walk away from an underpaying job. The Department of Labour does run inspections and the penalties are real, including fines of up to RM10,000 per affected employee, but a written entitlement and a reliably enforced one are not the same thing on the ground. Wage shortchanging among migrant workers in Malaysia has been documented for years, and a gazetted floor does not by itself make it disappear.
How does RM1,700 compare to actual wages in Kuching and Sarawak?
This is where the honest picture gets uncomfortable. The minimum wage is a floor, and in Sarawak a lot of jobs sit much closer to that floor than newcomers expect.
Sarawak’s median monthly wage in the formal sector runs in the low-to-mid RM3,000s, below Kuala Lumpur, where the median is around RM4,445 per the Department of Statistics. The state average is propped up by oil-and-gas roles in Miri and Bintulu; strip those out and a lot of everyday Kuching work, retail, food service, admin, junior office jobs, is advertised in the RM1,700 to RM2,500 band. It is genuinely common to see full-time listings here offering RM1,800 or RM2,000. The minimum wage is not a distant theoretical floor that nobody actually earns. For a meaningful slice of the local workforce, it is roughly the going rate.
| Benchmark (2024–2025) | Approx. monthly |
|---|---|
| National minimum wage (2026) | RM1,700 |
| Typical entry-level Kuching retail/service job | RM1,700–2,500 |
| Sarawak median formal-sector wage | low-to-mid RM3,000s |
| Kuala Lumpur median wage | ~RM4,445 |
| Malaysian national median wage (2024) | RM2,793 |
The comparison expats actually care about is starker. RM1,700 is roughly USD 380 a month at mid-2026 exchange rates. That is below a single day’s pay on many Western salaries. If you are relocating to Kuching on overseas income or a remote contract, the local minimum wage can look almost unreal on paper; if you are job-hunting for a Malaysian salary here, it marks a sobering baseline for what local employers consider normal.
Is RM1,700 a living wage in Kuching?
Barely, and only for one person living carefully. Kuching is one of the cheaper places to live in Malaysia, which is the saving grace here. A single person can eat well on hawker food for RM15–25 a day, a room in a shared place runs RM400–700 a month, and a Grab across town rarely tops RM15. On that basis, someone earning RM1,700 can cover rent, food, transport, and phone, and not end the month in debt.
What they cannot do is build anything. After EPF and SOCSO deductions, RM1,700 leaves a take-home in the low RM1,500s. Once a modest rent and daily food come out, the margin for savings, emergencies, or supporting a family is thin to nonexistent. On a single minimum-wage income, raising a child here is simply difficult. There is no softer way to put it and no upside clause to add. Bank Negara estimated a “living wage” for a single adult in Kuala Lumpur at RM2,700 a month back in its 2018 annual report, and living costs have only risen since; that gap above the RM1,700 floor is the part the cheerful relocation guides skip. Kuching’s low costs make the minimum survivable in a way it would not be in KL, but survivable is the ceiling, not comfortable.
A short history of Malaysia’s minimum wage
Malaysia is a relative latecomer to a statutory minimum wage; it only introduced one in 2013. The trajectory since:
| Year | Rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | RM900 (Peninsular) / RM800 (Sabah & Sarawak) | First national minimum wage |
| 2016 | RM1,000 / RM920 | Regional split still in place |
| 2019 | RM1,100 | Single national rate; East–West split abolished |
| 2020 | RM1,200 | Applied in major city-council areas |
| 2022–23 | RM1,500 | Phased in; small-employer grace period |
| 2025 | RM1,700 | Current rate; full coverage from 1 August 2025 |
Two things stand out. The first is that the East Malaysia discount, Sabah and Sarawak workers once being paid a lower minimum than Peninsular workers for the same job, lasted until 2019. The second is the pace: RM900 to RM1,700 in a little over a decade looks like steady progress on paper, but a chunk of it has been eaten by inflation, and the real purchasing power of the minimum wage has risen far more slowly than the headline ringgit figure suggests.
Where to check the official rate
The minimum wage is administered by the Ministry of Human Resources through the National Wages Consultative Council. The governing instrument is the Minimum Wages Order 2024, and the ministry maintains a dedicated portal at minimumwages.mohr.gov.my. Before you sign a Malaysian employment contract or set a salary as an employer, check the current Order there, because the rate is reviewed periodically and a future revision will eventually replace the RM1,700 figure.
If you are weighing a move to Kuching, treat RM1,700 as the floor, not the forecast. It tells you the legal minimum a local job can pay, and in this state, more roles brush up against that minimum than the brochures admit. A friend with a diploma and three years of office experience showed me four full-time offers she had collected over a month of job-hunting in Kuching. The highest paid RM2,100. She took it.
Keep exploring Kuching Insider: EPF explained, SOCSO explained, and the cost of living in Kuching.