Architect salary in Malaysia

What a new government architect earns

A newly appointed architect earns RM2,910 basic plus RM1,065 in fixed allowances in Kuala Lumpur: RM3,975 a month.

Grade J9, from the SPA service scheme and the JPA allowance circular. Arkitek is one of the 32 critical schemes that receive BIPK.

Sources: SPA service scheme; JPA Pekeliling Perkhidmatan 1/2024, Lampiran E (allowance tables). BISH is RM250 in Kawasan B and RM150 elsewhere. Totals computed by Foundific.

• Outside the big cities: BISH falls to RM250 in Kawasan B and RM150 elsewhere, so fixed pay is RM3,925 or RM3,825.
• A year at the start: RM3,975 × 12 = RM47,700, before any special payments.
• BIPK conditions: the incentive is paid while an architect does the scheme's core duties, not during administrative or counter postings.

How pay grows on the government scale

Grade 9 pay rises RM225 a year, from RM2,910 at the start up to RM11,110. Promotion to J10 and above moves an architect onto a higher range.

Minimum and maximum monthly basic salary for each SSPA grade, 2026.

Source: Ministry of Finance, Budget 2026 establishment list, Lampiran A: SSPA salary codes and minimum-maximum salaries (page A-1). Basic salary only.

• By increments alone: at RM225 a year, a J9 architect would need about 36 yearly increments to reach RM11,110.
• Promotion grades: J10 starts at RM3,840 and J12 to J14 at RM5,530 to RM6,560.

Compared with Malaysian pay overall

A new government architect's fixed pay, RM3,975, sits above the professional services industry median of RM3,677 but below the RM5,821 median for all professionals.

• Industry median covers each job in architecture practices, engineering consultancies and other professional firms, from clerks to partners.
• Measures differ: DOSM figures cover all paid employees and all ages. The government figure is one fixed pay point. Use them for scale, not as a direct comparison.

Architects in private practice

DOSM publishes no figure for architects as a single job. The professional services industry median is RM3,677 and the median for all professionals is RM5,821.

• Court awards: no family of architects alone reaches our 20-award threshold. The nearest technical family, engineers, had a median last-drawn pay of RM7,180 across 54 awards and 45 employers, middle 50% from RM4,150 to RM16,146. These are mostly experienced people who took a dismissal case to court.
• DOSM publishes salaries by industry, state and skill level, but not by job title.
• The pay scale above applies to government posts in JKR, local authorities and other agencies. Private practices set their own pay.
• Private surveys and job ads use different measures and samples, so their figures are not mixed into the tables here.

Data sources and coverage

Government pay for architects is exact. Private-sector context rests on industry medians and a court-award sample for a neighbouring job family.

• Compared with Singapore: Singapore's MOM publishes median pay by job title, age and industry. Malaysia publishes exact government pay scales but no market-wide figure by job.
• What a payslip shows is basic plus allowances plus any shift, on-call or overtime pay, so it can be higher than the fixed figures here.

Is architecture affected by AI?

The International Labour Organization rates building architects Minimal for exposure to generative AI. Its scores cover the job worldwide, so they apply in Malaysia too.

• Average task score 0.37 out of 1, across 9 main tasks.
• Most exposed task: Preparing project documentation, including sketches and scale drawings, and integrating structural, mechanical and aesthetic elements in final designs (0.47).
• Least exposed task: Monitoring construction or rehabilitation work to ensure compliance with specifications and quality standards (0.23).
• What exposure measures: how much of the work AI could do or speed up. It does not measure job cuts.

What the pay figures include

Every figure is monthly basic pay or fixed allowances, before deductions.

Related guides

Sources