Malaysia’s New Staff Salary & Training Incentives: JaminKerja by PERKESO & MyDigitalWorkforce Work In Tech (MYWiT) by MDEC
Our Malaysian economy is finally recovering, businesses are recovering and the job market is booming yet again. As an employer or HR Manager, you may be on the lookout for corporate talents to be absorbed into your organisation. In fact, our Malaysian government is even rewarding hiring employers in a bid to reduce the unemployment rate in Malaysia, through salary & training incentives for new employees who are eligible.
There are two incentive programmes: MyDigitalWorkforce Work in Tech (MYWiT) programme by MDEC and JaminKerja by PERKESO.
What is the JAMINKERJA initiative?
JaminKerja Salary by PERKESO (Image sourced from MOF Malaysia)
Firstly, the JaminKerja programme is an initiative formed by the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR) in collaboration with PERKESO under BAJET2022, to incentivize hiring companies who have recruited relevant new staff.
This programme is targeted towards new hires who were unemployed for at least 60 days prior to joining the new company. The main category for the general workforce is as follows:

What are the incentives available in JAMINKERJA?
Also, the maximum salary is capped at RM10k, so for eligible employees, companies can claim up to 20% of their first 6 months of salary (up to RM12k) and 40% for the remaining 6 months (up to RM24k), should the employees complete 1 year.
Reimbursements to employers will be credited every two months after SOCSO/EFP contributions are checked and verified.
The JaminKerja incentive is helpful for companies with low recruitment budget, especially for bootstrapped startups.
How to apply for the JAMINKERJA salary incentives?
Take note of the below document requirements before applying.
- Required documents:
- Employer’s bank account details
- Information on the employer’s business registration number that has been confirmed by the Bank (Business Registration Number – BRN)
- BRN Employee Verification Form signed by the employee
- Employee’s bank account information (copy of the front page of the Bank Statement with the employee’s name, employee account number, identity card number and bank name)
- The application ends after 30th June 2022.
You may visit https://jaminkerja.perkeso.gov.my to apply and get more information.
What is the MYWiT initiative?

MYWiT Salary & Training Incentive by MDEC, in collaboration with New Horizons Malaysia
Alternatively, MyDigitalWorkforce Work in Tech (MYWiT) is an initiative by MDEC that incentivizes employers via salary & training incentives for new employees to hire Malaysians for digital tech and service jobs or executive roles with digital functions. Unlike JaminKerja initiative, MYWiT is applicable for fresh graduates.
What are the incentives available under MYWiT?
Employers can claim up to 40% of an employee’s monthly salary for 6 months (Maximum incentive is capped at RM6,500/month, i.e. RM2,600).
MDEC also covers up to RM5000/pax for internal training, RM8000/pax for external digital training, and this is particularly useful if you are looking to form a digital workforce in your company. The training provider must be registered under MDEC and cover training courses that are in the area of Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Software Development, Digital Marketing and any IR4.0 related programs.
If you are looking to upskill your staff, MYWiT incentive will be perfect for your company, especially if you are running low on your yearly training budget.
How to apply for the MYWiT Salary & Training Incentive?
Below is the document checklist needed for your application
1. Company Information: Including SSM Certificate
2. Job information: Such as job descriptions for the applied job role
3. Employee details including:
Copy of employment offer letter for a minimum duration of 12 months
Copy of new employee MyKad
Employee details (template provided at the MDEC portal)
– Copy of final transcript/letter of completion of diploma/degree (for fresh graduates)
– Retrenchment Letter (for retrenched employee
4. Training information include:
External training template (provided in application form – Employee Details Excel)
Quotation for the selected course(s)
5. Written declaration that all the documents and information submitted are correct and signed by the employers’ authorized signatory.
As a registered training provider under MDEC, New Horizons is a global IT training center under whom we are providing industrial standard IR4.0 related digital certifications, such as the below.
- Analysing Data with POWER BI
- Certified Android Application Develoment
- Certified Ethical Hacker
- Python for Data Scientist
- Python for Beginner Introductory Level
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst
- CompTIA Linux
- Python Programming
- Big Data Hadoop and Spark

New Horizons IR4.0 Digital Certifications under MYWIT Programme
You may visit https://newhorizons.my/mywit-salary-digital-training-subsidy-mdec to apply and get more information.
Summary
All in all, both incentives help your company to reduce hiring costs significantly, especially if you have hired eligible staff. However, do take note that you cannot go for both incentives for the same new staff that you have hired. You may choose the incentives that can best benefit your organisation. If its just salary incentives for 1 year, JaminKerja is your go-to choice, whereas if you want both salary & training incentives, MYWiT is your best friend.

JaminKerja and MYWiT Hiring Incentives in a nutshell