Malaysia IT Salary 2009

Sometime between October 2008 and May 2009, ZDNet Asia conducted an online survey to gather and consolidate report on the salary of IT workers in Malaysia. Apart from Malaysia, the web portal also carried out similar analysis for a number of Asia countries e.g. China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines.

A few thousand users, consisting of various job functions including project management, IT management, systems development, support, communications, support, administration and others responded to the survey. Many of them hold permanent positions with their companies. Some others are working under contract, part time as well as being independent consultants.

[Full report]

In summary, those working in the IT management functions command the highest salary, with an average earnings of RM93,176 annually. The figure converts to about RM7,700 monthly. Additionally, if you are in the IT management and works in the IT, web and telecom industry, chances are you get higher figure than that as discovered in the survey. The folks in this specific category receives an average of RM8,5000 monthly or RM102,280 yearly.

In terms of salary by skills, application development, desktop/software and operating systems are the three top winners, bringing home more than RM38,000 annually, which, on estimation, double every 5 years or so.

Following are some of the relevant charts for you to see. Now you can decide if you’re underpaid, overpaid or simply floating around the average salary figure. All figures are in Malaysia ringgit.

Average salary by job function and industry:

Average salary by skills and years of experience:

Average salary by job function and years of experience:

Average salary for top 10 most popular IT skills:

Other posts you may want to read:

1. IT Salary in Asia 2007/2008 Compared
2. MEF Malaysia Salary Survey 2008
3. Kelly Salary Guide 2008/2009
4. Salary Guides are For the Average
5. Good Salary Jump in IT and Oil and Gas Sectors

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.