The Working Poor
By Teo Sue Ann, Ong Wooi Leng
June 2012 FEATURE
“Poverty”, as defined by the World Bank, refers to the minimum level of earnings by a person per day. In 2009, the mean of the national poverty line, better known as the Poverty Line Index (PLI), was adjusted to RM6.50 per capita (Malaysia: The Millennium Development Goals [MDG] 2010). Malaysia was amongst the first developing countries to define its PLI in 1977 as “absolute poverty”. In order to determine the PLI in 1977, the reference of a household of five...
Teo Sue Ann
Ong Wooi Leng
heads the Socioeconomics and Statistics Programme at Penang Institute. Her work lies in labour market analysis and socio-economic development.
