NO pun nor sarcasm intended but Malaysia may soon see a long queue of its graduates – both male and female – with their fingers tightly-crossed, making a beeline thronging the Causeway to attend interviews for the post of waste collectors (yes, ‘garbage man’ in the Malaysian slang).
Call that a sign of progress – a word which is becoming increasingly alien in Malaysia. Come July 2023, the basic wages for entry-level waste collection workers who are Singaporeans or permanent residents are set to increase from S$2,210 with annual increment at the rate of S$210 until 2028 when it hits S$3,260 (RM10,170).
Meanwhile, the baseline wages for senior drivers in the waste collection sector are expected to increase from S$2,910 in 2023 to S$3,960 (RM12,350) by 2028.
This progressive wage model comes after the Singaporean Government accepted recommendations by the Tripartite Cluster for Waste Management (TCWM) for a progressive wage model for the waste management industry, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Jan 24.
Obviously, it is impossible to make an apple-to-apple comparison here but assuming that everything is ceteris paribus here, the wages are indeed alluring given the exchange rate differentials whereby the Singapore dollar is thrice the value of the Malaysian ringgit.
Typically, many newly-qualified medical doctors in Malaysia are earning about RM3,500/month on average while fresh university graduates can expect to get anything from RM1,500 to RM3,000/month depending on their field of studies and possibly personal skills (command of language, previous job experience or even ‘street smartness’).
With ample job security and mandatory annual bonus (of least one month which is not tied to performance in the case of Singaporeans and permanent residents), Malaysia is surely in a position to export many ‘highly-skilled’ waste management workers to Singapore in the future.
Against such backdrop, many highly-educated Malaysians supposedly would not mind getting their hands dirty.
This is definitely a worthwhile trade-off considering Malaysia saw the number of its unemployed graduates rising 22.5% in 2020 to 202,400 from 165,200 in 2019, according to a report dated July 27, 2021 by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
DOSM attributed such a trend to challenging labour market conditions as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in fewer job openings and increased competition.
Well, no intention to be sarcastic (once again) but the ability of a small island nation with no natural resources to pay a princely sum to rubbish collectors is nothing short of admirable.
Dignifying what traditionally is perceived as a dirty job fit for a school drop-out portrays the pace of development that Singapore is in now and how Malaysia has been left light years behind. – Jan 26, 2022
