Average monthly salary of Malaysians up 4.1% to RM3,803 in 2025

In 2025, the average monthly salary of Malaysians surged by 4.1% to RM3,803, up from RM3,652 the previous year, according to the latest Salaries and Wages Survey Report 2025 released by the statistics department. The median monthly salary climbed by 5.3% to RM2,940, compared to RM2,793 in 2024. The total number of monthly salary and wage earners reached 12.01 million, a 0.5% increase from 11.96 million in 2024.

Of these, 10.38 million, or 86.4%, were Malaysians, constituting 7.42 million of the full-time paid workforce. The services sector contributed the most to this growth, rising by 1.8% to 7.42 million employees. Mining and quarrying boasted the highest average monthly salary at RM6,175, followed by services (RM3,993), manufacturing (RM3,357), construction (RM3,188), and agriculture (RM2,575).

Skilled workers, comprising 36.6% of all salary earners, secured the highest average monthly salary at RM5,799, while semi-skilled workers saw a 4.2% increase to RM2,714, and low-skilled workers rose by 2.6% to RM2,184. Among the states, Selangor led with 25.6% of salary earners, followed by Johor (13.6%) and Sarawak (7.6%), all surpassing the national average.