Folks living in Kuala Lumpur make nearly three times as much as their Kelantanese counterparts, a recent study by Institut Rakyat revealed.
The study by the think tank found that Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor were the top three states with the highest median income levels at RM7,620, RM6,214 and RM5,197 a month, respectively.
Meanwhile, Kedah, Pahang and Kelantan ranked at the bottom of the scale with median incomes of RM3,451, RM3,389 and RM2,716 respectively.
According to Institut Rakyat’s assistant research director Ginie Lim, the national median income level had gone up by 11.7% to RM4,585 a month in 2014 from RM3,626 in 2012.
However, only five states recorded medium income levels about the national medium. They are Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malacca, Johor and Penang, said Lim.
The median represents the income at the middle of society between the richest and poorest, and economists use this measurement to see how fairly income is distributed between all levels of society.
Median is considered more accurate than average household incomes, which can be skewed by extreme high and low numbers among the richest and poorest in society.
The gap between the states with the most income equality and the ones with the least income inequality has also gone up.
The survey found that the state with the most income equality was Malacca, which recorded a Gini co-efficient (a measurement used to represent the income distribution of a nation’s residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality) of 0.316. The closer the measurement is to zero, the more equal a society is in terms of income.
At the other end is Kuala Lumpur, which has a Gini co-efficient of 0.407 – 1.29 times that of Malacca and is higher than the national level of 0.401.
The figures used in Institut Rakyat’s calculations were derived from the Statistics Department 2014 household income survey that was published recently.
The widening gap is expected to put more pressure on Putrajaya’s goal in the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) of a more equal wealth distribution among all parts of the country.
[Source]
