sideviews

Of Bangladesh workers and low salaries – Visithra Manikam

February 18, 2016

I always say this – Malaysians are one of the most ill-read group of people.

Yet without researching a topic, they are capable of voicing out their opinions on everything under the sun including why Malaysia needs foreign workers – the current hot topic that has shown the ugly racist side of Malaysians.

One of the main points they claim is that Malaysians do not want to work in sectors such as construction as the pay is very little. One politician even came out to say that we should raise the wage to RM1,500 and then Malaysians will work.

Now you see that’s a MYTH.

If people had actually looked up the current wages of industries such as construction, they would have realised their folly.

CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board) has shared statistics of annual daily construction wages on its site. Let’s take a look at the January 2014 salary chart for Selangor.

A local general construction worker would earn an average of RM70 per day or RM1,750 for 25 days.

A foreign general construction worker would earn an average of RM57.50 per day or RM1,437.50 for 25 days.

Hey isn’t that RM250 more than what PKR Youth vice-chief Fahmi Fadzil has suggested?

But that’s not all, take a look at the welders section.

A local general skilled welder would earn an average of RM127.50 per day or RM3,187.50 for 25 days.

A Foreign general skilled welder would earn an average of RM93.50 per day or RM2,337.50 for 25 days.

Now these numbers are two years old and should have increased by now.

A friend recently posted that it was so hard to find skilled welders that, some can even earn up to RM20,000 per month and this usually goes to skilled Bangladeshi welders.

So please tell me why Malaysians (who are actually paid more than foreigners) not entering the construction industry despite the pay being higher than the average salary for a fresh graduate for an executive position?

That’s not all.

Last year I hired a maid service for two hours for RM70. I had to call a few places before I found one that was available for the weekend. I was surprised to see a Malaysian couple turn up. It was their own company and they did all the cleaning.

Say they cleaned 10 houses just on the weekend, that’s about five houses per day.

They would have earned RM700 in two days for 20 hours of work and that’s about RM2,800 for four weekends.

Their cost? Minimal travel costs as the clients would provide the cleaning equipment.

So why aren’t more Malaysians doing this?

There are so many apps and sites that connect you with such cleaning jobs but what’s stopping Malaysians from cleaning homes? You can even do this as a part-time job.

Simple. Malaysians are too lazy and want easy, air-conditioned jobs. Basically they want to work less and earn a lot. In the meantime, they rather blame hardworking, resourceful foreigners than grab the many opportunities available.

Is it beneath you to do an honest well-paying cleaning job?

Must be, as it seems that blue collar workers should look up with reverence towards white collar higher classed Malaysians.

That’s called slavery, class supremacy and racism.

Now that you know what you can earn in the construction industry, let’s see how many Malaysians who complained about the salaries, will head out to work in the construction sector, or become a plumber, welder, wireman and so forth.

By the way the 400,000 unemployed graduates, this is an industry you could work in. You'll actually earn more and don't need to speak English. – February 18, 2016.

* Visithra Manikam reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.