An Urban Household Living Wage: An Empirical Overview

Abstract

As Malaysia is rapidly progressing towards the status of a high-income nation, it is imperative that all of its residents strive for at least a minimally decent standard of living. Keeping a comfortable standard of living is becoming increasingly challenging for many families as the cost of living continues to rise. The goal of this research is to learn how much is the living wage for the household residing in Kota Kinabalu need to get by. In this research, a "household" is a person or a group of people, whether they are related or not, who live in the same house and make financial decisions together. This research used the Anker Formula to determine a fair living wage. This research adopts a quantitative approach for data collecting by distributing self-designed questionnaires to respondents in and around Kota Kinabalu. The results of the study reveal that the total living wage required by households with varied numbers of full-time workers varies modestly. Overall, a worker in the Kota Kinabalu area needs RM 2393.06 a month as a living wage to maintain a minimum acceptable standard of living. Literature demonstrates that the cost of housing, food, transportation, communication, healthcare, education, household size, the number of full- time workers, and savings all play important roles in determining a family's ability to make ends meet. Authorities should place greater weight on these considerations when determining the minimum wage legislation, especially in densely populated areas like Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.