Dear readers,
I would like to inform you of something that in my opinion is not possible. What is your opinion? Recently I met a nice lady who works in a bar (so nothing new) but this lady 53 years old is not the type who goes along for 1000 Baht. She prefers to work for 25 Baht per hour. What?? Yes, yes, I calculated it.
Suppose you work (enough hours a day, at least 8) then you are entitled to 300 Baht, so I understand. My sweet darling works 12 hours a day and has two days off per month. In my opinion, with these hours/days you are entitled to 12.800 Baht per month. But no, she gets 6000 Baht per month, excluding tips and drinking money, which is 30 Baht per drink (a Thai is drunk on average after 5 drinks, so more than 150 Baht per day is not included). Until the end of the month, she still takes the moped taxi to my house at 02 AM when the bar closes. Cost 200 Baht.
Count out your profit.
Am I seeing it wrong or what? And what if next month the owner of the bar comes to me and demands the usual 7.000 Baht because I took his Lady from the bar.
Please advice.
With greeting,
Fred
We are here in Loei in a bar/restaurant with live music and the girls who work here have a standard wage of 120 baht per evening. So they really have to get it from their tips because going with men is not an option. If the boss finds out, you can leave and you won't get any work anywhere because all those pub owners know each other.
The usual monthly wage in a bar is 3000,- bath, the girls have to have the rest from drinking money and sorties, that's why so many like to be checked out because that's their merit. The bar owner is the sucker the girls have to make a minimum of 10 sorties is 3000,-bath for the owner plus the profit on the lady drinks. It is an outrageous exploitation system.
Fred that's the rules of the game it is the way it is
You came up with the idea that 300 bt minimum wage is for only 8 hours. Nowhere is the number of hours stipulated that one should work for that 300 bt. A working day of 10-12 hours is typical in Thailand. Although anyone who ever watches knows that no more than half of them actually work.
The hourly wage that eg 7-11 pays to part-time workers is around 27/29 bt/hour. And they don't get a commission.
I didn't come up with anything myself, I only suggest if you work MINIMUM 8 hours.
There is a big factory around the corner from me ( http://www.bkkshirts.com ) with more than a hundred ladies behind the sewing machines and THOSE work 8 hours a day and get 300 Bath a day.
My girlfriend works 21 to 14 hours a day about the same salary no free ,
1 day in the month All those owners are slave drivers and most of them are from Europe.
They pay the police to ignore opening hours.
It is time that the government does something about the working conditions and control.
Corrupt is rampant. I've been coming to Thailand for 15 years but it's getting worse.
I can endorse this experience. My girlfriend worked for a Dutchman who, among other things, runs a hotel/restaurant/bar in Soi Honey Inn. Starting at 09.00:6000 in the morning until the last customer has left, which was regularly after midnight in high season. No day off a week, she was sick one day, was not paid. Earning XNUMX baht per month. For the staff there was a room, without a bed or cupboard space, shared by five, where they could sleep, if he did not bother them. And nice that it was there according to his website.
If your girlfriend stops working, the boss saves 6.000 baht. Why would you pay 7.000 bath to stop. Your girlfriend needs to shut up and just stop working. Nobody will notice. Or your girlfriend must want to keep her job.
It's true that the basic salaries are very low, but to call the bar owners suckers is going a bit too far. The costs that a bar in Pattaya levies are enormous, having a bar in soi 7, for example, costs more than 700.000 baht per year in rent, key money and electricity alone, you have to earn that first, then come the salaries and ladydrinks on top. a good bar lady may have a small basic salary, but what she earns from lady drinks and what customers pay her can add up, from 40 to 50.000 a month, and that is no exception. The real suckers are the owners of the land, who demand so much rent and key money that the owner of the bar only has a very small salary, if he earns anything at all!!! salary is now around 3000 to 4500 per month.
Moderator: comment on the article and not just each other.
Think that all this is still well paid and that there is certainly no poverty in Thailand, just look. In the neighboring countries, for example, Cambodia they earn 50usd per month and other countries do the opposite, but in Thailand people are best paid.
Officially 300 baht per day…but yes…officially prostitution is also against the law…..I know a bar where the ladies only get to eat/sleep…the rest they have to earn from ladydrink and entertainment actions (think broadly here)…
But then you would indeed be told 9000 baht per month… under 150k baht per year you are tax exempt….so you do not have to pay tax…
>And what if next month the owner of the bar comes to me and the
>claims the usual 7.000 Baht for taking his Lady from the bar.
I don't see that. Explain it if you want.
Dear Oean Eng,
Well, it is customary to pay the owner of a bar 7000 Bath when you remove a lady from the system.
Three years ago I did that at Mama bar in Jomtien. Then good friends with everyone.
Unfortunately my sweetheart has gone back to Buriram where she is now.
A good friend of mine refused to pay this in Soi 7 and had to deal with three taxi drivers who came to collect the money, not knowing that my good friend is a respected FREE FIGHTER.
Hello.
I hear all kinds of stories here, most of which are only partially correct. My girlfriend has worked in beer bars in Pattaya for almost 20 years, 3500 bth a month, in the last bar where she worked they were the only one in the area with a toilet, the money was divided among the girls, a small 600 bth a month.
She got nothing from a lady drink, which costs 30 baht more.
@ Kurt… with that 7000 bth letter writer means the barfine, and you have to pay that to the boss anyway, or she will lose her job.
7000 baht is cheap by definition, because the normal rate is 300 baht per day in Pattaya, in almost every bar, except Walking street, where it is many times more expensive.
Vaqn the 300bth barfine there's 200bth going to the bar owner and 100bth to the girl, and that's how it is everywhere in Pattaya, so I suppose it's the same elsewhere.
I have lived here long enough not to know… in our soi there is a bar owner, a German, whom I personally know very well, who pays his girls 75 bth per 8 hour shift, is 2250 bth per month, and that I haven't heard of it, but I see it there almost every day.
What you can do here is, for example, to buy her out before I say only three months, and then the amount is about 65% of those 9000 barfine per month, which I also did.
Then your girlfriend doesn't have to work for 3 months, and she can start her job again after 3 months.
If you don't do it like that, she is 100% sure to lose her job, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, or has an exception, but they are scarce in Pattaya, in fact I don't know any.
i have been with my girlfriend for 2 years now, i solved it differently, took her out of that bar the first night i saw her, didn't pay barfine, and took her with me.
If you start that you know what the consequences are, she can't live on love, but we'll manage.
She had doubts, because the boss still had to give her “big money”, my girlfriend said. I asked her, what do you mean by big money… yes she says, the boss still owes me my salary from last month, 3500 bath. Another thing, paying on time most of those owners have a brother dead.
I said: leave that wage for what it is, we are gone.
There have been months of flaming arguments between the boss and my girlfriend because I hadn't paid anything for her, to the extent that I didn't even want to go through that soi anymore in terms of safety.
In the meantime the situation is normal, we go back to that bar, the boss knows that my girlfriend will never come back.
Many underestimate this situation, especially people who come here once or twice a year for a short time, because then you have no control over the situation.
If you sometimes see how here in some soi's the most beautiful girls wriggle in all kinds of curves just to get a costumer that night, then it's really not out of luxury, believe me. And the later in the evening, the more their "short time" rate drops, and they often go for 500 bth, on Beach Road 350 bth, so it's not a lot of money.
And as far as the minimum wage of 300 bth is concerned, most of them have never even heard of it… I am now talking about Pattaya, we will wisely remain silent about Isaan, because they have even less there.
And to respond again to Kurt who says there is no poverty in Thailand… well, I live here, and whoever says there is no poverty here urgently needs his glasses replaced, there is also such a thing as hidden poverty, you just have to want to see it.
Sincerely.
Rudy.
The 300 Baht minimum wage is per day, as Nietgoed rightly points out.
In Beer Bars where an amount is also paid per Lady drink, a basic wage of 6000 Baht per month is very common.
If you took the Lady out of the bar as an employee, you must pay the bar fine.
If the lady herself has stopped working, you have nothing to do with the employer.
Hi Fred,
It's a bit more complicated than you think.
That is different per bar. There is no legal minimum wage in Thailand. So that 300 bath per day is not a given. On average you get 4000-6000 baht per month if you work in a bar.
It also often happens that a number of girls who work in a bar get nothing at all.
However, they are given shelter and food for free by the owner of the bar. They often sleep with several girls in 1 room above the bar.
The lady drink tip ranges from 30 to 50 bath per drink. The girls are usually not obliged to drink an alcoholic drink themselves if they are offered a drink by a man. But many girls just like to drink alcohol, because it loosens them up and they can really drink more than 5 drinks. If you, as a man, want to take a girl from the bar, it will cost you 300 – 500 baht. Sometimes the girls get half the money from the barfine, but often they don't. Depending on the location of the bar. You pay more in Bangkok than in Pataya, for example. This also applies to the prices that girls ask for a “short or “longtime”. Bangkok is usually a bit more expensive. In Pataya you usually pay 1000 bath for a long time. What I don't understand from your story is that this lady has something with you and takes a moped taxi to your house after work, I think 200 bath is way too expensive for a moped taxi, unless your house is 15 km or more from the bar. I assume that you will at least pay her for her moped taxi or not? Why don't you just pay the barfine for her 300 bath a day and she won't have to work. Another thing, you didn't take the lady out of the bar, because she just keep working, why should you have to pay 7000 bath? I assume that you will give her some money for her stay with you. If not, you're a cheap Charlie.
Hans
There is indeed a legal minimum wage in Thailand.
Since January 1, 2013 this is 300 Baht per day.
Whether everyone receives minimum wage is another story.
It is also not the case that many work with an employment contract in Thailand and that is the case in all sectors.
The sectors where employment contracts are used, or those who have an employment contract will be paid (at least) that minimum wage.
Everything else is usually based on oral agreements and that includes the agreement about the salary.
In the past, some articles about that minimum wage have appeared on the blog.
Here are already two.
https://www.thailandblog.nl/achtergrond/verhoging-minimumdagloon-geen-wondermiddel/
https://www.thailandblog.nl/nieuws-uit-thailand/kort-nieuws/minimumloon-thai-niet-omhoog/
It is customary if a customer pays the barfine, he also gives something extra for motorcycle taxi in addition to reward for entertainment. Taxi costs are for Fred. Many bars also provide free food for ladies while working. Then there is also such a thing as free choice of works. If a 53-year-old lady wants to work in the bar – and as Fred says no longer goes along for 1000 BHT entertainment in the hotel – this bar also knows that this lady cannot earn any bar fines. And that will more or less also apply to the ladies drinks because the average bar visitor is looking for a younger lady to show off his feathers. In fact, this bar employs the 53-year-old lady for chores such as serving drinks and bar filling and the lady in question should be happy that she can work here for the amount offered. Now that Fred falls for this lady – afterwards she takes the motorcycle taxi to his hotel and the lady goes out for extra income – Fred has now calculated that he owes the bar 7000 THB. Complaining on this site that she is being abused when he doesn't sit at her bar every night and offer at least five drinks and pay the bar fine but summon her to his hotel after hours is misplaced. Fred says nothing about his lady's living situation. Hire his lady with several girls from the same bar and Fred has the lady come to his hotel after work, I can imagine him worried about 7000 THB bar fine in arrears. If Fred wants to have a lady who earns more, he has plenty of opportunity in a first-class gogo. But yes, the drinks cost more there, at least two ladies drinks must be bought, the bar fine is higher, it is checked whether girls do not go with customers after closing time and the girls also expect a little more reward.
Many comments on this article, some very short-sighted, with an accusing finger at the bar owners, I already explained in a previous comment that most of the money goes to the landlords, but I want to add something to this. What if the customers of those bars would put their hand in their own bosom? What if these ladies raised their price from 1000 bht, to say 4000 bht for short time, which is the normal price in many countries? And if the bars increased their price for beer from 60 to 90 bht a bottle, what would they actually have to do to get out of the costs? I ran a bar on soi 7 for 7 years, never touched any of my ladies and apparently overpaid them when I read the comments here like this, always served the customers well and looked after, but I've seen them walk away because the beer is 5bht became more expensive, and it was cheaper elsewhere. The cheap charlies of this world, who always want a front row seat for a dime, are the exploiters, not the bar owners, the people here who recommend just taking the lady they like out of the bar, and no barfine to pay, what are they doing? You can't just change the rules of the bars, look at it that way instead of always pointing the finger at someone else.