Pay rise in Thailand comes much too late
Workers at the lower end of the pay scale can barely make ends meet. The Thai Labor Solidarity Committee (TLSC) has calculated that an appropriate minimum daily wage for a worker with two family members should be 441 baht this year.
Pheu Thai has promised 300 baht during the election campaign, but already seems to be backing down under pressure from the business community. The effective date of the increase is likely to be postponed with the exception of Bangkok and Phuket. The civil servants will take their turn on October 1.
The increase in the minimum daily wage is supported by, among others, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Into wages Thailand have always been low, but in recent years the rising cost of living has weighed particularly heavily on the lower paid. A large number of workers and their families are caught in a debt spiral.
The increase has been strongly protested by the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Both the domestic private sector and foreign investors are concerned about the impact on production costs. They predict that inflation will increase, Thailand's export position will be damaged and unemployment will rise. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises can close their doors or have to lay off staff.
Nevertheless, the TSLC and the vast majority of workers maintain that raising the minimum wage is essential to their survival.
Take Aranya (38). She works in a lace factory six days a week and earns 220 baht a day. She donates 250 baht to the Social Security Fund each month, supports her family and is lucky enough to live near the factory to save on transportation costs. She struggles to make ends meet every month.
Or take Tanawan (40), who also works in a clothing factory. She earns 250 baht a day or 6.000 baht a month thanks to some overtime. If there are no orders, she will be sent on unpaid leave.
Or take Ton, construction worker. He earns 250 baht a day, still more than some of his peers who work in a gas station and earn 150 to 167 baht. But if his employer has no work, he is forced to stay at home and the risk of an accident is not imaginary.
Ask any worker and they all say the same: the increase to 300 baht is an improvement, but still not enough to live on, especially if other family members depend on it.
We all know what tambouring is. Every year, Buddha comes through the neighborhoods and is tamboed for one or more days. Every Thai who lives in such a street gives money to Buddha. If people can't make ends meet at the bottom of society, how is it possible that people give between 300 and 500 baht per family and sometimes even more to the annually recurring tamboen? The more people give, the more respect, because on the loudspeaker it is announced what my contribution is. Yet this surprises me every time that despite poverty people are able to put money aside and give it to Buddha.
Tambourine is done on many occasions; funerals, weddings, renovations to the temple and school or other (festive) occasions and there are quite a few. The Thai believes that everything one gives away will come back in multiples in later life. One gives according to the space in the wallet that allows; it therefore does not matter whether you give 10 baht or 1.000 baht; it is important to give. Western society could take an example of this, where everything depends on the generosity of the (local) government and people complain if it does not meet expectations.
Isn't the same thing happening here with the (local) government?
Here in Chiang Mai, everything is done to keep the graduates here (creativechiangmai.com for example). However…..when such a measure first applies to Bangkok and Phuket, then I see many people, for this reason, leave earlier for the rich south… Too bad!
Don't have any problem giving something then, except for the temples, they don't get a penny from me, but yes those jokers then turn to my girlfriend, so that doesn't help either.
huh? Wasn't it (correction: isn't it) the Netherlands with all its Dutch people who give the most money per capita to any disaster area with every action?
The big difference is that the Dutchman does not expect it again in a next life, let alone believe that it will come back someday.
Well, what is written is nice, but that certainly does not apply to Phuket, there is no one here who comes to work for 300 bath, they do not even open their eyes to that. I now have people from other countries working because you can't find a Thai who wants to work (Phuket then)
There is still a feudal system in Thailand; the large, often poor lower layer must ensure that the small group of extremely rich become increasingly richer and in between there is another layer that wants to get a share of this.
As long as I come and live in Thailand, which is quite a few years, I don't know better than that a Thai construction worker earns around 200 to 250 baht a day; seasonal workers on the land have been earning 150 to 200 baht a day for many years.
In many eyes, that increase to 300 baht per day seems enormous, but nobody realizes that there is little or no control over enforcement. Legal certainty does not exist here; no assignments = no work = unpaid unemployment; dissatisfaction with salary = dismissal and so on. Figures about the actual payment of the minimum wage or rather the non-payment of it do not exist.
In the many articles that have already been written on this subject, I come across the fear of inflation time and time again. However, despite barely rising wages in recent years, there is still an inflation of 4% per year. Ra ra, how is this possible?
Inflation, declining investments, less exports, all fallacies used by the feudals to keep feeding their own stock market.
aranya, tanawan and ton from the example just get the sack if the employer has to pay 300 (or even 440) baht p/d.
what do you think of all those farm workers..
for example, will you pay 10 men for 10 days to bring in the rice or will you hire, for the same money but probably less, 3 people with a rice machine who will do it in 1 afternoon.
The fact that people are not living on minimum wage now means nothing at all.
in the Netherlands you can't get by on minimum wage either.. are we going to give it a 65% surcharge? 😉
@jim
A rice threshing machine is paid per rai (=1.600 m2) and takes about 5 to 6 hours, depending on the waterloggedness and shape of the land; cost an average of 900 baht per rai. With a threshing machine you have to take into account about a 10% loss of rice. Four or five experienced khun kiew kaw (rice cutters) do the same for 200 baht a day; with chewing lom (blown rice stalks) 250 baht per day. So the costs are not that different. Your math may work with large gentlemen farmers with 100 plus rai in rice fields, but the average rice farmer in Thailand does not get more than 10 to 20 rai. In addition, a threshing machine cannot work in fields where there is still a lot of water, but people can. So your comparison is bullshit!
Well, nonsense is a big word, I can still remember that the potatoes in the Netherlands were dug up by hand, and that my dad plowed the land with the help of a horse.
In Thailand I have already seen the water buffalo replaced by those small tractors.
If labor becomes more expensive compared to mechanization, it will automatically move in that direction.
Of course nobody will show up for 200 baht a day when the minimum wage is 300.
according to your calculation, a rice machine does 2 rai per day at 1800 baht.
if wages go to 300 bpd, four or five experienced workers do 1 rai a day for 1200 to 1500 baht.
As I mentioned in a previous comment above, there is no check whatsoever on minimum wage payments. We always pay the people who help us 250 baht per day, in addition we provide food and at the end of the day beer or lao chew for the enthusiast. But I know from experience that most day laborers earn 150 baht. They are happy that they have a job and that will not change anytime soon. Most employers in Thailand don't care about the minimum wage and will soon not pay 300 baht. It must be a reason for them to raise prices, so more profit in the pocket.
It's high time that the prosperity in Thailand was shared.
or we will have riots like in the Arab countries.
understandable when you see all that luxury and wealth in Thailand
I completely agree with you Ludo,,, only it will never happen….
That 300 Bath minimum wage was just a handy Thaksin trick to get the voters, who wouldn't want a raise, now that it's established, it just won't happen, and a certain unnamed family member will be coming back soon.....
I can't say too much about that either, because then comes the unrelenting Moderator 🙂
(I understand too)