Brendon Beliku is a corporate immigration and employment compliance professional based in Kota Kinabalu. He writes independently on Sabah’s economic governance, labour policy, regulatory affairs and Momogun empowerment.
KOTA KINABALU: Most of the Budget 2027 debate has focused on government spending rather than on what the Budget now allows employers to do.
Two sets of measures, one on student loans and one on family support, are not labelled as retention policy. Read together, they give Sabah employers something they have rarely had: affordable tools to keep the graduates the state keeps losing.
-The Leak Sabah Already Measures-
Sabah does not need to guess why its talent leaves. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the median monthly wage of Sabah’s formal sector workers was RM2,000 in March 2025, against RM3,000 nationally and RM4,445 in Kuala Lumpur.
Half of Sabah’s formal workers therefore earned no more than RM2,000, which is the national minimum wage from June 2027 and less than the RM2,500 floor promised to new graduates.
For a young Sabahan comparing offers, the gap is visible before any other benefit is counted.
Talent loss is usually treated as a problem for government to solve through investment and wages. But the decision to stay or leave is also made inside workplaces, at the moment a graduate compares one employer’s offer with another.
That is where Budget 2027 quietly changes the arithmetic.
-Two Tools Hidden in the Budget-
The first tool is the student loan. Under Budget 2027, employers who repay their employees’ PTPTN loans can claim a tax deduction for those repayments in 2027 and 2028. Borrowers earning up to RM2,500 a month can defer repayment in 2027, while those earning between RM2,500 and RM3,000 pay a minimum of RM50 a month.
At the same time, the government has announced a RM2,500 monthly floor for new graduates and semi-skilled workers, with details still to come.
The overlap is worth noticing. A fresh graduate paid at the new floor sits right at the edge of the deferral line. Deferral helps that graduate in the short term, but the debt remains.
An employer who offers to repay the loan, in return for an agreed period of service, is offering something a slightly higher salary elsewhere may not match.
For many young Sabahans, a cleared PTPTN balance is worth more than a few hundred ringgit a month, and the tax deduction makes it cheaper for the employer to provide.
The second tool comes from the public sector, and it works as both a model and a warning.
Lifetime maternity leave for civil servants rises from 360 to 490 days, with up to 98 days for each childbirth, and RM20 million is set aside for childcare centres at government facilities.
This widens the gap between what government offers and what many private employers can provide.
Young parents, and especially young mothers, are among those most likely to leave a private job when family and work collide. The civil service has just tilted that choice in its own favour.
-What Employer Led Retention Looks Like-
Private employers cannot match the civil service on every point, but they do not need to.
A credible retention package for a Sabah graduate could combine a few elements, offered here as proposals for discussion.
It could repay the graduate’s PTPTN loan over an agreed period of service, using the deduction while it lasts. It could provide childcare support or flexible return arrangements after parental leave.
For smaller firms, it could use the MediAsas subsidy, which from January 2027 gives SMEs with fewer than 75 employees RM200 per employee towards first year health premiums, to offer the basic health cover that young workers value.
There are real limits, and they should be stated plainly. The PTPTN deduction applies only in 2027 and 2028, so it is a window rather than a permanent policy. A tax deduction is also worth most to firms that pay tax.
A small business with thin or no profits gains little from it, so larger employers will find these tools easier to use than small firms. Service agreements must also be fair.
A loan repayment that traps a graduate in an unsuitable job will damage trust and, eventually, the employer’s reputation. The aim is to make staying attractive, not leaving impossible.
There is also a role for the state. Sabah’s agencies and employer associations could publish a simple model retention package, explaining how the PTPTN deduction, MediAsas and family support can be combined, so that small employers do not have to work it out alone.
For Momogun families who sent a child away to study with a loan attached, this matters directly.
A graduate who can come home to a job that clears the debt and supports a young family is a graduate who stays.
Budget 2027 did not announce a retention policy for Sabah. It may have handed employers one anyway. Whether it works depends on who uses it before the window closes.
[Disclaimer]: The views, opinions and analyses expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or positions of the Jesselton Times, its editors, management or affiliated entities. This article is published for analytical and public
