A/HRC/44/40/Add.3 undocumented foreign workers. The minimum wage was raised to RM 1,100 (US$270) in 2019, just barely above the poverty line. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • To imply that enforcement has been uneven because it does not cover undocumented foreign workers would be an unfair assessment of the overall labour inspection environment. The reference made to the OECD study states that strengthening enforcement of minimum wage is essential for its effectiveness and it seems to be uneven – which was not reflected in the statement. Paragraph 30 Nationwide, twenty percent of households have a monthly income of less than RM 3,000 (US$738), and 8.8 percent must scrape by on less than RM 2,000 (US$492). The situation is even worse in certain areas. In Kelantan, 48.4 percent of households have an income of less than RM 3,000, and 22.9 percent of households make less than RM 2,000 per month. East Malaysia also has a disproportionate number of low-income households, with 16.1 percent of households in Sabah and 15.5 percent in Sarawak living on less than RM 2,000. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • To amend: Nationwide, 14.6 percent of households have a monthly income of less than RM 3,000 (US$738), and 5.8 percent must scrape by on less than RM 2,000 (US$492). V. Social Protection Paragraph 31 Despite Malaysia’s economic ‘miracle’, its expenditure on social protection in 2017 was lower than all Southeast Asian countries for which data was available. And unusually, its social protection spending has not risen in step with GDP. While low government revenue limits the resources available for social protection, this is because it “significantly undercollects in key revenue areas.” Thus it is projected to record one of the lowest levels of fiscal revenue in proportion to GDP in 2020 (17.9 percent), well below the average for upper middle-income countries (28 percent), and down from 25.8 percent in 2012. As of 2017, less than 10 percent of Malaysians over 15 years old were paying income tax, and the top marginal tax rate for very-high-income earners was just 28 percent. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • The Malaysian Social Protection Council (MySPC) is currently mapping the social protection programmes and provisions. This exercise will be supported by four Working Committee under MySPC: Labour Market Intervention; Social Assistance; Social Insurance; and Data Management. MySPC will formulate an action plan, which will cover the rationalisation of social protection policies / programmes and empowerment of service delivery. It will also be supported by integrated and efficient data management. • The way forward of Malaysia social protection system will be determined by the Council supported by four working committees so that the issues of many social protection programmes implemented by the Government ministries, agencies and resources will be more structured and coordinated. Paragraph 32 Better targeted and implemented fiscal policies would readily enable the government to develop a comprehensive and integrated social protection policy that will provide for all Malaysians across the life cycle. The Malaysia Social Protection Council, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, is well positioned to do so particularly if it draws on the expertise of the Working Group on the Social Protection Blueprint, which has drawn up an ambitious plan to fill in the gaps and reorganize the country’s social protection programs in line with the International Labour Organization’s compelling approach to Social Protection 13