Wednesday March 2, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR: People working in the financial sector are the highest paid, according to a survey by Bank Negara.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim said this was revealed by an American consultant en-gaged in a minimum wage study.
“The average income of those in the financial sector is 70% more than other professions including engineers, lawyers, accountants and doctors.
“I think I’m in the wrong sector,” he said, drawing laughter from those at the Malaysian Financial Planning Council’s Chinese New Year get-together yesterday.
He also said the growth of the financial sector was expected to be a minimum 10% with the presence of foreign funds, bonds, and stocks.
Lim said the survey could help in drawing up strategies to in-crease the peoples’ income in line with the country’s stated goal to become a high-income nation by 2020.
He described the Human Resources Ministry’s proposal for a minimum wage as a good idea.
“We are looking at implementing the minimum wage in the middle of this year,” he said.
“The Government is targeting to create 3.3 million jobs under the Economic Transformation Programme,” he added.