Who pays for the mamak's lights at 4am?

You do, mostly at lunch. That's my rough guess, because I couldn't find anyone publishing what a mamak sells after midnight, but I'm surer of the other half: the lights were never the expensive part.

The fan is fine

Say a ceiling fan draws seventy-odd watts and power costs fifty sen a unit, both my rough guesses. That's under four sen an hour.

Now say a teh tarik is two ringgit fifty, and a ringgit of that survives the tea, the milk and the washing up, which is another guess. One cup runs the fan for about a day, so I doubt anyone at the counter loses sleep over it.

It's the people

The Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association (Primas) put a number on the real bill in March 2022: "One outlet needs at least 35 workers to operate 24 hours but currently each outlet only has about 12 workers".¹ That's Indian restaurants generally, not only mamaks, and the twelve was mid-shortage, so I'm borrowing it with care.

People per outlet, as one association put it

Is it believable? Say shifts of eight hours and one day off a week. Keeping a single job filled round the clock then takes three and a half people, so thirty-five works out at about ten people on the floor at any hour, and that sounds like a busy shop to me.

Then there's what each of them costs. In 2024, the secretary of a Johor association of Indian Muslim entrepreneurs listed the extras per foreign worker: a yearly levy of RM2,300, and up to RM500 a month for room and food.⁴

Put those on the RM1,700 minimum wage and one person costs about RM2,400 a month, before overtime or EPF.⁴

Now say the hours from midnight to eight need just four people, which is about five on the payroll once days off are counted. That's roughly four hundred ringgit a night, or four hundred cups at my one ringgit, or fifty an hour.

People eat as well, and I'd guess a plate leaves more than a glass does, so the real crowd can be smaller. It still has to turn up at the hour I'd expect the fewest people.

The night has other bills, too. A nasi kandar chain told The Star that dropping live sports at its ten outlets saved about RM6,000 a month, so that's RM600 an outlet, which buys a great many fans.³

So who's paying?

I couldn't find a number for how much a mamak sells between midnight and dawn, so this is a guess, rounded to fives so it looks like one.

A 24-hour mamak's takings by time of day, my rough guess

If that's close, the night shift works a third of the hours and brings in about a seventh of the money. The rest of the day is carrying it, and that's you with your nasi kandar at one o'clock.

The best case against my guess is location. Presma, the Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association, had a simple way of putting it: "Some mamak restaurants are located near factories, so people who work late shifts patronise these eateries".³ A shop like that may pay for its own night, and then the answer is whoever's on break from the line.

Why open at all, then?

The fair argument for the night is rent. A Setiawangsa operator told The Star that shoplots in the Klang Valley are expensive, and that 24-hour trade may be needed to cover the cost.³

I think that's the right way to see it. The rent's the same with the shutters up or down, so the night doesn't owe any of it: it only has to beat its own shift, and whatever's over goes towards the lease.

If I owned any shop, that's the idea I'd keep. I'd judge an extra hour on what that hour alone adds, and a bakery that shuts on Mondays is doing the same sum from the other end.

There's also the sign. A place that's never shut is a place you stop checking, and I suspect that's worth something at lunch. I could be wrong, and what would change my mind is one shop's takings by the hour.

Most of them have already answered

Restaurants were allowed to run all night again from April 2022.¹ Days later, Presma's president said only 25% of its members could manage it.² He'd told another outlet about 10% a few days before, so I'd take both as a feel for it and not a count.¹

Bernama's reporters in Kuala Lumpur found many stopping at around two in the morning. Demand wasn't the complaint, according to the president: "Even though the demand is high, we just don't have the workers for our business".²

Those figures are old, and I couldn't find a newer count of who stays open all night. In October 2025, Presma was still asking for 15,000 foreign workers, and the Home Minister had said the freeze on quota applications would stay until further notice.⁵

So my reading is that a night near a factory is a business. Everywhere else it's an advert, paid for in wages, and plenty of owners have stopped running it. That operator in Setiawangsa put the mood plainly: "Most of us would prefer closing at midnight, to be frank."³