Cost of hiring a foreign worker in Malaysia: full 2026 breakdown

Here's everything you pay for when you hire one foreign worker:

• Levy — your biggest yearly government cost
• Security bond — refundable; you get it back when the worker goes home
• FOMEMA medical check — once a year
• PLKS work permit — renewed every year
• EPF and SOCSO — the same contributions you pay local staff
• Insurance — SPIKPA health cover plus the workers' insurance guarantee
• Housing for the worker
• Agent and processing fees — one-off, in the first year only

The first year is the expensive one. On top of the yearly costs, you pay one-off fees: the agent, the visa and permit processing, and a refundable security bond. From year two, those drop away and you're left with the levy, FOMEMA, insurance, the permit renewal, EPF and SOCSO. That's why renewal runs at roughly half of year one.^[1][3]

The levy depends on your sector and where you operate. Manufacturing, construction and services pay the higher Peninsular rate; plantation and agriculture pay less. Sabah and Sarawak have their own rates. It's a yearly cost, not a one-off, so it's usually the single biggest line in your budget.^[2]

The security bond is set by the worker's home country, not by their wage or your sector. It's a deposit, not a fee. You get it back when the worker's permit ends and they leave Malaysia, so treat it as cash you tie up in year one, not money you spend.^[3]

Every foreign worker has to pass a FOMEMA medical check, and it's repeated every year the permit is renewed. The calculator uses the higher (female) fee when you haven't told it the worker's gender, so the estimate stays on the safe side.^[4]

PLKS (also called VP(TE)) is the work pass itself. You renew and pay for it every year. It's separate from the one-off visa and approval paperwork you handle once, when the worker first arrives.^[5][9]

Yes, EPF and SOCSO apply to foreign workers. As the employer you add 2% of wages for EPF and 1.75% for SOCSO, every year. On top of that comes insurance: SPIKPA health cover and the foreign worker insurance guarantee (FWIG).^[6][7][8]

We split costs four ways: one-off, yearly, refundable, and wage-based. That keeps the deposits you get back separate from money you actually spend, so the totals reflect real budget rather than a pile of fees.^[1]

One caveat for Sarawak: we model the FWTA fee at its normal RM1,854. The renewal is temporarily cheaper at RM1,484, from 1 June 2026 until it goes back to RM1,854 on 1 January 2027, so our Sarawak renewal figure runs slightly high during 2026.^[10]

1. Separate one-time costs from annual recurring costs.
2. Mark refundable deposits separately from permanent expenses.
3. Calculate wage-based EPF and SOCSO from monthly wage.
4. Route uncertain or user-specific costs through the calculator inputs.