Not true.
I've tons of friends working in SG with Malaysian Uni certificate.

@Brc
Ahhh forgot to include offshore yes.. 3-7k then.

just as i say in my previous post, try and go for job interviews, and see if you are able to get better salary. as a guideline, my friend who just joined my company said he get about 20-30% increment from his last job. while my brother who also moved to a new company got the same exact salary as before, but since its closer to home and a permanent job as compared to the previous contract based job, he took it anyway.

specifically about you and your colleague who get 3k while you got 2.9k, it really depends on the benefits. my company recently did a salary adjustment where all the new comers, even fresh grads get a rm500 more than me, also with 1.5 years exp, but they didnt have house/car loans, and also capped medical benefit. sometimes its just the timing that matters. at some point, when there's lack of qualified people applying for the job, they might pay you more.

And i also agree about experience not related to the job. it doesn't matter, some things you can learn but what they look for is your ability to learn and solve problems which can be portrayed even when you work on a non related work. plus 1.5 exp isnt that much, and most companies usually treats those with less than 3 years exp same as no exp. also, the expected salary in your resume does play a part in determining your salary.

Job Title : Electrical Engineer
Qualification : B.Eng (Electrical-Power)
Job Desciption : Design electrical power generation, transmission and distribution for offshore platform and onshore plant.
Years spent in company : 9 month
Company : Oil & Gas Consultant
Industry : Oil & Gas
Tenure : contract (1 year probation period)
Employment Level : Exec
Experience before joining : Fresh Graduate
Salary : basic=2.4k...after plus some OT=around 3k..after confirmation(permanent)...basic more than 3k..:-)

benefit : unlimited medical claim, parking claim, professional membership claim..:-)