Daily News

View All News

Malaysia – Women chronically underrepresented in the labour market

27 November 2014

Despite various initiatives, the number of Malaysian women employed in the formal workforce has remained stubbornly below 50% for the past 20 years. Women employed in the formal economy, however, earn less than men at every level, according to the Malaysia Human Development Report 2013, reports The Malaysian Insider

The Human Development Report 2013, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also noted that low female participation in the workforce and wage discrimination between genders have significant implications for Malaysia's growth.

The report found that for the past 20 years, the employment rate for Malaysian women has remained below 50% (47.9% in 2011 and 49.5% in 2012), as opposed to the male workforce participation rate of nearly 80%.

This was an “unusually low” rate of female participation in the labour force, when compared with other countries in the region; such as Thailand (69.9%), Singapore (62.9%), and Indonesia (53.3%) in 2011.

The report stated: “The low labour force participation rate also means that out of the 9.6 million women of working age in 2011, only 4.6 million were in the labour force. The remaining five million who could be gainfully employed were officially considered as ‘not working’ or ‘not looking for a job’.”

For Malaysian women with paying jobs, however, their average earnings were less than that of their male peers' income across all occupations.

According to the 2008 statistics from the Ministry of Human Resources, men in senior and managerial positions earned an average monthly salary of MYR 4,296 (USD 1,283), while women in the same positions earned almost half at MYR 2,522 (USD 753).

Men in the professional category earned an average of MYR 3,670 (USD 1,096), but their female peers earned MYR 2,848 (USD 850).

“Across all formal jobs, men make more money than women... this is wage discrimination purely on the basis of one’s gender but rationalised as the inherently inferior qualifications of women,” the report found.

Wage differences between men and women were bigger in high-end jobs, such as the professional category, as opposed to the low-income jobs like craft and service workers. The report found: “These findings suggest that the capacity for upward mobility to narrow the earnings gap is limited and possibly systemically inhibited, most obviously in professional positions.”

Women were also more likely to be found in services and clerical jobs, and continued to lag behind men at the top-end of the job spectrum in positions such as senior officers and managers, the report revealed.

“In 2010, there were over 600,000 men who occupied the post of 'senior officers and managers', while just over 200,000 women were in the same category... in 10 years, women’s share within the 'senior officers and managers' bracket grew by a mere +3%,” the report stated.

The data showed that a lack of opportunity, rather than capability, was to blame for the scarce female representation in the workforce, the report's authors said.

Moves such as the legalisation of flexi-work under the Employment Act in 1998 to let women "integrate career with household duties" and extended maternity leave to 90 days for the government sector also did not seem to have pushed up the percentage of women in the workforce.