Page 32 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 7

CPS2021 Noor Ismawati et al.

The social-demographic effects on earning and
its differentials in public and private sector
2
2
Noor Ismawati Mohd Jaafar , Nor Hanizah Abu Hanit , Norisan Mohd Aspar
1
1 Social Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Malaya
2 Department of Statistics Malaysia

Abstract
Despite noticeable demographic shift in Malaysia, national statistics shows
that employees remain as the biggest group in the Malaysian working
population. As more women joined the labour force with better educational
attainment, the gender earning gap has been identified as one of
demotivation factor for women to remain working. Focusing on the monthly
earning of paid employees, this paper investigates the effect of socio-
demographic factors on earning. Considering one of the aim of the
employment policies enforced in the country at the public sector is to reduce
gender discrimination, the paper compares the result for paid employees
working in public and private sectors by gender. Analysis done with Malaysian
Salaries and Wages Survey 2010 – 2017 shows that earning increases with age.
Chinese earns significantly higher as compared with Bumiputera at both
sectors and highly educated employees significantly earn more. Being
unmarried is no longer a significant factor among female in the public sector
for certain years.

Keywords
Paid employees; Principal occupation; Citizen; Socio-demographic factors.

1. Introduction
Between 2010 and 2017, the Malaysian population has increased from 28
588.6 thousand to 32 022.6 thousand persons (Department of Statistics
Malaysia, 2017d). Throughout this observation period, majority of Malaysian
population was within the age of 15 to 64 years with approximately 70 per
cent of the population was within the working age group. This trend can be
seen for each year since 2010 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017a,
2017b, 2017c). Within the working population, employed persons comprised
as the largest group not only in the working population but as well as in the
overall population. During the same observation period, the female
participation rate in the labour market had increased from 46.8 per cent in
2010 to 54.7 per cent in 2017. Nonetheless the rate in 1990 peaked at age 24
but decreased with age (Siti Rohani Yahya, 1993) and the rates of those with
tertiary education were also lower as compared with their male counterpart
(Roslilee AB Halim et al., 2016).
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