Malaysians face retirement in poverty as lifelong low pay bites back in their autumn years

“I usually buy two whole chickens at the market every fortnight,” he told This Week in Asia from a wet market in Kuala Lumpur. “But if prices keep going up I may have to cut back to buying chicken just once a month.”

Ghee should be enjoying his twilight years without worry. But like millions of Malaysians who have worked their whole lives on relatively low wages, he is staring down the barrel of poverty in his dotage, living on a fixed income after retiring from his job as a sales executive 13 years ago.

If times are tough already, experts warn the outlook for many of those next in line to retire are even bleaker.

In November, the finance ministry told parliament that around 6.3 million private-sector workers younger than 55 had less than 10,000 ringgit (US$2,125) saved up for retirement.

The figure accounted for more than half the total number of people aged below 55 who have accounts with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a statutory body that manages retirement savings for private-sector workers, who are legally required to retire at 60.

Left unchecked, the country could face a situation where millions of Malaysians are left with just 42 ringgit (US$8.92) per month to survive on in their old age, according to the ministry’s calculations.

To help spur more saving, the government in January paid out a one-off 500 ringgit top-up for 1.4 million EPF members between the ages of 40 and 54 with savings below 10,000 ringgit.

Between 2020 and 2022, EPF members withdrew a total of 145.5 billion ringgit (US$30.8 billion) in four tranches from their retirement savings, according to government data.

The withdrawals – allowed by the government to help people get through unprecedented financial hardship – caused a 34 per cent spike in the