Malaysian Fresh Grads Demand RM6,500 As Their Starting Salary
This is why employers are not hiring them.
By Tang Ruxyn — 23 Dec 2016, 11:00 AM
RM6,500. That's how much fresh graduates want for their starting salary.
A survey by online employment portal JobStreet.com disclosed that 30% of fresh graduates are expecting to get paid as high as RM6,500 for their first job to live comfortably and 60% of them are expecting RM3,500 for their starting salary.
The survey findings are also consistent with other surveys done in the past such as the Universum's Malaysia Top 100 IDEAL Employers Talent Survey.
While there's nothing wrong to want such figures for their starting salary, their expectations have caused them to stay unemployed
Speaking at the JobStreet.com Salary Guide launch at the Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya, Selangor yesterday, 22 December, JobStreet.com regional communications head Simon Si said that 68% of employers who participated in the survey said fresh graduates are asking too much for their first jobs.
"There are top five reasons why fresh graduates don't get hired. Firstly, asking for unrealistic salaries, poor command of English, choosy about the job or company, poor communication skills and poor character, attitude and personality," Si was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Why do these young people have such "unrealistic" salary demands?
According to Si, one of the main factors that contributed to such demands from fresh graduates are the high standard of living that they probably would have enjoyed during student life thanks to their parents' financial support. These young graduates would then find it difficult to maintain their lifestyle once they started working since their parents would stop supporting them financially.
"Some of the students now already have their own cars before starting to work. Another reason is the high cost of living," Si further said.
"Having said that, we also have to look at living expenses today. I think what needs to happen is for the industry to come together with the understanding of the reality of the salary situation which is perceived as inadequate by many fresh graduates," he added.
Clearly, there is a gap between what companies are willing to pay and what the candidates want to be paid
This had led JobStreet.com to introduce the Jobstreet.Com 'Salary Guide' to give job-seeking candidates a clearer picture of what is happening in the real market by giving them an indication of what is the average salaries offered by companies.
The figures are compiled from job advertisements published on its site in 2015 until 2016.
"The actual salaries for various positions, of course, varies based on many factors such as market demand and supply, the academic grades and acquired skills of the candidates and the compensation and benefit policies of the hiring company," he was quoted as saying by NST.
Meanwhile, netizens seemed to have divided views on this issue
Many opined that the fresh graduates nowadays are too "pampered" for wanting such high salary but unwilling to work hard. They also cited their own personal experiences, saying that they managed to survive despite getting a low pay initially and had to endure many hardships to achieve what they have today.
On the other hand, others have jumped in to say that the fresh graduates' demands are not unreasonable, given that the cost of living is higher nowadays.
