The money in Engineering & Skilled Trades: first pay and growth

Key facts

• Your first pay depends on the role, the employer, the location and your qualification, and the figures here are what other new graduates reported, not a promise. Across all fields in 2025, 36.0% of new degree graduates earned more than RM3,000 a month, against 7.6% of diploma and 7.3% of certificate graduates.^[1]
• New degree graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction most often earned RM3,001-RM4,000 a month in 2025 (29.3% of them), and 42.2% earned more than RM3,000.^[1]
• For new diploma and certificate graduates in the same field, the most common band was RM1,501-RM2,000 (40.9% of diploma and 47.3% of certificate graduates).^[1]
• The 2025 employment rate was 95.7% for graduates in this field and 95.9% for TVET graduates, against 92.3% for all new graduates.^[1]
• The legal minimum wage has been RM1,700 a month since 1 February 2025.^[2] A rise to RM2,000 from June 2027 has been announced but is not yet law.^[3]

Engineering & Skilled Trades is about making, fixing and powering things: wiring, machines, buildings, factories and power plants. You can start through a skills certificate, a diploma or a degree, and each route starts at a different pay level.

People in this area often start as an electrician, a mechatronics technician, a civil engineer or a solar installer. Job titles vary between employers, so read what the job involves, not only its name.

What decides your first pay

A first salary depends on four things: the role, the employer, the location and your qualification. The same job title can pay differently from one company or town to the next, so always read the advert itself.

The figures below come from KPT (Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi, the Ministry of Higher Education). Its Graduate Tracer Study asks graduates about their work around the time they graduate. The newest report covers graduates who finished in 2025 and was published in October 2026. It includes citizens from local universities, colleges and public skills institutes, from SKM (Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia, the Malaysian Skills Certificate) level 2 up to PhD, and its pay tables leave out people working unpaid for their family.^[1] The numbers describe what other people reported. They are not a promise of what you will earn.

What new graduates in this field earned

The tracer study groups people by field of study, not by our career areas. For Engineering & Skilled Trades we use its engineering, manufacturing and construction field. The two right-hand columns are our own sums of the published pay bands.^[1]

Read it like this: about half of new engineering diploma holders earned RM2,000 or less, and fewer than one in ten earned more than RM3,000. Your take-home pay will be lower than your salary once EPF (KWSP, your retirement savings) and SOCSO (PERKESO, cover for work injuries) are deducted.

Skills certificates and TVET

TVET (technical and vocational education and training) is the hands-on route through skills certificates, community colleges, vocational colleges and public skills institutes. The certificate figures above include graduates of community colleges (kolej komuniti) and public skills institutes such as ILKBS, ILKA KESUMA and ILKA KKDW, which the tracer study reports alongside universities.^[1]

TVET graduates had an employment rate of 95.9% in 2025, compared with 92.3% for all new citizen graduates.^[1] This is a reported employment outcome, not a count of vacancies, time to hire, job quality or a promise of employment. It does not tell you the pay: 70.5% of new certificate holders in this field earned RM2,000 or less.^[1]

Pay later on

DOSM (the Department of Statistics Malaysia) surveys everyone in work, at every age, so its medians are not first salaries. In 2025 the median was RM2,663 in manufacturing, RM2,270 in construction and RM3,727 in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply.^[4]

By type of job, the 2025 median was RM3,852 for technicians and associate professionals, RM2,173 for craft and related trades workers, and RM2,083 for plant and machine operators and assemblers.^[4] Across all jobs, the median was RM1,931 at ages 20-24 and RM2,884 at 30-34.^[4] Those are different people at different ages, so treat this as a general pattern, not a forecast of your pay.

There is no tracer figure for people who start work straight after SPM. Across all ages, employees whose highest qualification was SPM or below had a 2025 median of RM2,203, against RM3,779 for diploma holders and RM5,276 for degree holders.^[4]

How this compares with the minimum wage

The national minimum wage is RM1,700 a month, under the Minimum Wages Order 2024, in force since 1 February 2025.^[2] Budget 2027 announced a rise to RM2,000 from June 2027, with micro, small and medium businesses (MSMEs) with annual sales below RM50 million exempted.^[3] It also announced RM2,500 a month for semi-skilled workers and graduates as a starting point, with no start date.^[3]

Both are announcements. Until a new Minimum Wages Order is gazetted, RM1,700 is the legal floor, so check the date on any article that quotes a higher figure.

Questions to ask about a job

• Does the job need a licence or a recognised skills certificate, and who pays for the training?
• Is overtime common, and is the advertised pay with or without it?
• Does the advert say the employer contributes to EPF and SOCSO?

What this means for you

• On the certificate or diploma route, the most common first pay in this field was RM1,501-RM2,000, close to the RM1,700 minimum wage. Plan your first year's budget around that band, not the top of the range.
• A degree had by far the largest share earning more than RM3,000, but it takes longer and usually costs more before you earn anything. Weigh both sides, not only the pay.
• The DOSM medians show a wide gap between technicians and craft or trade workers. These cross-sectional differences do not track individual progression or prove that a diploma causes higher pay. Role, licence, employer, location and experience can all matter.
• The field reported a higher graduate-employment rate than the all-field figure in 2025. This does not measure local vacancies or how easily an individual can find a job. Compare pay, overtime, safety, contract terms and training.

Your next step

1. Find two real entry-level job adverts for one role in this area, such as electrician or mechatronics technician. Write down the pay, the location, and whether EPF and SOCSO are mentioned, then compare the pay with the band for your route above.
2. Take that figure to the Day 3 first-salary simulation, where you live a practice month on a starting salary. first-salary-simulation-explained shows how gross pay becomes take-home pay and a first-month budget.

For each deduction on a payslip, see payslip-basics-epf-socso-eis-minimum-wage. For every career area side by side, see first-salaries-by-career-area.

Scope and current-policy check (24 October 2026)

All graduate bands refer to citizens graduating from the institutions covered by KPT in 2025, grouped by field of study. They are not salaries for all SPM leavers or for a particular job title. DOSM medians cover different people across ages and roles; they do not establish a pay trajectory, causal qualification premium, job security or Malaysian vacancy growth. A tech startup is an employer type, not a separately measured salary population in these sources. Do not invent a startup premium.

RM1,700 is the reference in the published Minimum Wages Order 2024.^[2] Budget 2027 announced RM2,000 from June 2027 with an MSME sales exemption; treat that as an announcement until a new instrument and implementing guidance establish the applicable scope and effective date.^[3] Check the official 2027 updates guide before accepting an offer.

Ask whether pay is basic or includes overtime, whether shifts and probation apply, who pays licence and safety costs, and when progression is reviewed.