ON Labour Day 2012, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the private sector minimum wage would be RM900 per month for the peninsula and RM800 for Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan. It was a game-changer to transform the labour market as part of the Economic Transformation Programme to make Malaysia a high-income economy.

The announcement was the culmination of two years of hard work by the Human Resources Ministry, Minimum Wage Technical Committee, World Bank and National Wages Consultative Council (NWCC). I am proud to have been involved in this long-standing quest by workers in the country.