Beginning June, employees earning a gross monthly salary of RM4,000 will be eligible for coverage by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem.

He said Socso expected this ruling to benefit 500,000 workers who were not covered under the Employees Social Security Amendment Act (Act 4) approved by Parliament recently.

Riot said the scheme was effective from June 1 after the amendments to the Act are gazetted.

"Previously, only employees earning a monthly salary of not more than RM3,000 were eligible for coverage, and Socso expects 6.5 million workers in the country to benefit from the scheme," he said.

Riot was speaking to reporters after officiating a knowledge-sharing session on the Employees Social Security Act 2015 (Amendment) Bill 1969 to increase the ceiling for monthly contributions from RM3,000 to RM4,000 for all workers here Monday.