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On October 1, 2010, a new regulation will go into effect in Malaysia that will influence all employers that hire part-time workers. This regulation will require employers to make contributions to the national Employment Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organization (SOCSO) for most part-time workers. The law will affect those workers who work at least 30% of the number of hours worked by full-time staff at the same company.

The EPF is a compulsory retirement savings scheme that was implemented in Malaysia in 1991. It acts primarily as a social security system, but also allows employee withdrawals for housing costs and other critical needs. SOCSO is a social insurance scheme that provides medical and family services to Malaysian employees.

Malaysia's Minister of Human Resources stated that the new regulation will affect more than 12 million existing part-time employees in the country who are not currently part of the social insurance schemes. Employers currently pay 12% of employees' monthly base salaries to the EPF and employees contribute an additional 11%. Companies also contribute 1.75% for SOCSO and employees pay 0.75%. These percentages will be pro-rated for part-time workers based on the amount of time worked per week.

The new regulation will also entitle part-time employees to other benefits including paid leave and is hoped to encourage at least a portion of of the country's 6.5 million latent workers (many of whom are single mothers, housewives, retirees, students, etc.) to return to work.

Increased government crackdowns on firms that do not comply are also expected. During a three-month period of concentrated enforcement of the EPF laws for full-time workers earlier this year, over 190 companies were fined a total of more than RM180,000 (about US$58,000) for violations.