Economist background here, let me give the unpopular but real answer. One, oversupply of degrees. We pushed everyone to get a degree, so a degree stopped being special. When supply is high, price (salary) stays low, basic economics. Two, our economy is still heavy on low-margin manufacturing and services, not high-value industries. Companies that don't make high margins simply cannot pay high salaries, no matter how kind the boss is. Three, the ringgit weakened over the years, so even when nominal salary creeps up, real purchasing power stays flat. Four, we have long competed for foreign investment by being cheap labour, which structurally caps wages across the board. The fix is not one generous company, it is moving the whole economy up the value chain, which is slow and political. So individually, the smart move is to get skills that are globally priced, tech, finance, anything remote-payable in USD, so you escape the local salary trap instead of waiting for the whole system to change.