Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs In Malaysia 2016

Written by Rebecca Shamasundari

Is your job is among the best paid in Malaysia? You are just about to find out.

When choosing a career, besides looking for jobs that are meaningful and challenging, it is equally important to look at the salary prospects. Everybody needs to make money to make ends meet and be able to fund their lifestyle and various financial commitments.

In fact, 53% of Malaysians consider salary and benefits as a top priority when choosing a job, according to The 2016 Hays Asia Salary Guide. In other words, 5 out of 10 Malaysians view salary prospect as one of the main deciding factor when choosing a job or career.

Besides that, Malaysians also view the availability of new challenges and career progression – as the next two important factors when considering a job opportunity.

Though salary is seen as an important factor for Malaysians, there are more than one survey to back-up the fact that Malaysians are generally not satisfied with their salaries. A survey by Salary Explorer revealed that Malaysians scored only 2.42 in salary satisfaction, just a little higher than global average of 2.36. Seems like the world generally feels that their salaries do not commensurate with their work load or cater for their basic commitments.

JobStreet’s survey on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in Malaysia showed that in terms of salary, 61% of the total respondents felt that their salaries were low or not enough to survive with. It’s important to find the balance between salary and job satisfaction.

So, where do the big bucks actually come from?

Salary Explorer recently released its 2016 Highest Paying Jobs rankings, which determines the best paying jobs in the country based on the average monthly salary. Not surprisingly, all of these top jobs come with six-figure salaries — a month!

If we look at these top 10 high-paying professions, there’s a few common threads: higher educational qualification, in-demand skills, years of experience and low automation or competition.

If you are looking to earn more in the coming year, the infographic shows the top 10 highest paying jobs in Malaysia:

Rank	Profession	Monthly salary
1	Surgeon	RM70,000
2	Chief Financial Officer (CFO)	RM70,000
3	Marketing Director	RM55,000
4	Clinical Research Associate	RM52, 917
5	Real Estate Brokers	RM50,000
6	Risk Management Director	RM40,111
7	Strategy Director	RM30,000
8	Pilot	RM29,375
9	Legal Services Director	RM29,083
10	Electric & Gas Operations Manager	RM27,000

However, keep in mind that there you are compensated with a higher salary in these best jobs for obvious reasons, such as long working hours, increased levels of responsibility or subordinates, higher traveling frequency, long back-breaking stand-by hours – or in other words, simply added work stress.

Although salary is an important factor when one chooses his/her profession, it is equally important to choose a job based on one’s passion. If you are doing something that you are passionate about, you will naturally be good at your job.

Striking a balance between the two is the key to a successful career progression, and hopefully, the income will increase in tandem with the progression. Remember, no matter how high your salary is, money doesn’t buy happiness.