What do working class Thais really earn

[mommysboy]

11 hours ago, tryasimight said:

Some posters don't suffer from the particularly British need to clarify people.  Working class??  Are we still in the Victorian era?

No, we're answering the topic heading.

[timendres]

On 8/6/2018 at 8:55 PM, sawadee1947 said:

On 8/6/2018 at 3:15 PM, timendres said:

What exactly does a "freelance for Thai Airways" do to earn that sort of money?

I have my ideas. Probably it has to do with "quick" work. And something with free and lance. Maybe to avoid boring Flights for the pilots.

Frankly, I do not think that would earn 45,000 per day.

[KhunFred]

On 8/6/2018 at 3:48 PM, Kadilo said:

7/11 is about 10,000/month I believe 

7-11 girl told me 7 thousand a month. Maybe they raised the wages. Still not enough.

[Petchou]

10 hours ago, Rally123 said:

What/who is 'working class'? 4 women live up from me. They spend all day laying in hammocks never doing an ounce of work. Are they 'working class'?

you must be doing nothing watching them doing nothing.  if not how would you know?  lol

[sawadee1947]

1 hour ago, timendres said:

Frankly, I do not think that would earn 45,000 per day.

you're right, not with 2 pilots only, but there are 300 more passengers to serve......

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, sawadee1947 said:

you're right, not with 2 pilots only, but there are 300 more passengers to serve......

Thai Airlines, was it? Seems their service levels have gone up considerably. 

[sawadee1947]

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

Thai Airlines, was it? Seems their service levels have gone up considerably. 

Prior to employment they have to give proof of skills

[melvinmelvin]

11 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

My Thai neighbor;

48 years old male

Works in a car repair/fixup shop, after cars have crashed (plenty to do after new year and songkran).

10-15 people employed there.

My neighbor does the spray painting of the cars.

 

Works Monday-Saturday, 0800-1700 (1 hour paid lunch break), 300 baht / day (10 000/month).

 

 

 

Lady, early 40s, well educated. Self-employed.

Assist people, Thai and farang, with sale and purchase of condos, houses and real estate.

 

Very good English. 25-50 k / month.

[melvinmelvin]

Just now, melvinmelvin said:

 

Lady, early 40s, well educated. Self-employed.

Assist people, Thai and farang, with sale and purchase of condos, houses and real estate.

 

Very good English. 25-50 k / month.

 

Another one. Lady early 30s, very well educated, bright, way above average good command of English.

 

34 000 / month

 

Works in a company/factory that treats steal and iron constructions so that they do not rust.

She is QA boss. But now and then also helps a bit with customer relations because of her English.

 

[Bigz]

There is a garment factory next to our village near Buriram. The women earn 350 baht/day sewing 6 days a week. The day rate for working on the rice fields when needed is 200-300 baht.

[Bang Bang]

Here's an online cheat sheet: https://adecco.co.th/salary-guide

[Thian]

On 8/6/2018 at 10:15 AM, timendres said:

What exactly does a "freelance for Thai Airways" do to earn that sort of money?

My wife also does the taxforms for a sr stewardess from Thai air...i won't publish numbers but it sure is a very good salary.

[Bang Bang]

16 minutes ago, Thian said:

My wife also does the taxforms for a sr stewardess from Thai air...i won't publish numbers but it sure is a very good salary.

Google says:

Thai Airways International Flight Attendant Salaries. Thai Airways International Flight Attendants earn $40,000 annually, or $19 per hour, which is 5% higher than the national average for all Flight Attendants at $38,000 annually and 42% lower than the national salary average for all working Americans.

 

Which is 100k b pcm, probably more for the more experienced ones. But they are really cute most of them and deserve every penny.

[Thian]

9 minutes ago, Bang Bang said:

Google says:

Thai Airways International Flight Attendant Salaries. Thai Airways International Flight Attendants earn $40,000 annually, or $19 per hour, which is 5% higher than the national average for all Flight Attendants at $38,000 annually and 42% lower than the national salary average for all working Americans.

 

Which is 100k b pcm, probably more for the more experienced ones. But they are really cute most of them and deserve every penny.

Plus the money they get for being overnight and for food...the girls can save on that as well.

 

For a Thai it's a very good salary, it's sad though that not all thai stewards are fluent in english, sometimes i have no idea what they're trying to say.

[DrTuner]

I'll contribute too: Woman, 30's, B.Sc. agruculture, manager in car rental, Pattaya, 32k/month. Man, 30's, B.Sc. civil engineering, works in QA in factory construction, Rayong/Chonburi, 40k/month. Both have been working about 5y.

[lkn]

On 8/6/2018 at 2:18 PM, HHTel said:

The point I was trying to make is that you can achieve great things regardless of your background.

Maybe, but the story you have told is (at best) one in a million.

 

To me, your story is weird on a few points. For example that she apparently got a degree in both law and economics a year ahead of schedule. This makes me skeptical because at least the university I attended, no-one would get their degree a year ahead of schedule: That would mean that you had learned less than those taking the full time and/or rushed through it, only taking the minimal amount of courses necessary to get the degree (which does not make you more attractive at the job market).

 

As for the salary, this is also weird from Thai Airways’ point of view. They are paying top dollar for a 22 year old student who is not available to them during regular workdays? That really makes no sense, as they could hire two full time senior employees at the same rate, so why would they go with this 22 year old student who refuse to come in Mon.-Fri. when you would expect most of the people she is working with to be at the office?

 

If Thai Airways is paying her what you say, then she must have some truly unique skills, because it just doesn’t make any sense for them otherwise, but what could this be? I assume she is not the only one who graduated from her university?

[mommysboy]

People are chipping in with examples of people doing well. These people are very well qualified or have some special skill.  In no way are these people representative of typical working class (blue collar, tertiary educated/ poor) people.  These examples are really more suited to the question: What do middle class/well educated people earn?

[lkn]

1 hour ago, mommysboy said:

These examples are really more suited to the question: What do middle class/well educated people earn?

If the question is, what does unskilled labour make in Thailand, the question is easy to answer: The minimum wage in Chiang Mai is 320 baht/day so 9,600 baht/month (excl. overtime). It was recently increased from 308 baht/day, and I had 3 contractors all increase their rate, claiming it was because of the higher salaries, which indicates that they only pay their staff minimum wage.

 

I do occasionally hear people say that 7-Eleven, KFC etc. only pay 7-8k baht/month, don’t know if that is just because of another province with a different minimum wage, or if these jobs are somehow exempt from the law (when it comes to overtime, vacation, etc. there are laws, but then also your standard ministerial directives that can basically amend the rule of law and make lists of types of jobs where the law does not apply).

 

[lkn]

On 8/6/2018 at 2:18 PM, HHTel said:

Ok.  I've got the full SP on my friend's step-daughter.  I am curious as to how 'working class' is defined.  It seems on here that to be working class, you have to be poor!!  That is certainly not true.

Having a real hard time letting this one go, I can see a few possibilities:

 

1. Someone in the chain from your friend’s step-daughter to you is exaggerating the amounts by a huge factor.
2. She is taking part in criminal activities and this is her cut, could be money laundering.
3. She is the beneficiary of some rich sponsor.
4. She has dirt on someone which she has used to blackmail them into giving her this sham job.
5. She is uniquely talented in a way where her weekend meetings adds millions of baht to Thai Airways’ bottom line, and therefor worth every baht.

 

I ordered the possibilities from most to least likely.

 

And sorry @HHTel for going on about this, I know I should just drop it, but the numbers just doesn’t make sense: You could tell me that she was selling cosmetics on Facebook and making 45,000 baht/day, and I would give you the benefit of the doubt, but that she basically has a salaried position with Thai Airways puts an upper limit on what is believable, because where selling cosmetics on Facebook means you could have thousands of customers each day paying you pennies, with Thai Airways you have an HR department that needs to have a pretty good explanation as to why they are paying a 22 year old student at least 10 times the market rate for her services.

[HHTel]

8 hours ago, lkn said:

Having a real hard time letting this one go, I can see a few possibilities:

 

1. Someone in the chain from your friend’s step-daughter to you is exaggerating the amounts by a huge factor.
2. She is taking part in criminal activities and this is her cut, could be money laundering.
3. She is the beneficiary of some rich sponsor.
4. She has dirt on someone which she has used to blackmail them into giving her this sham job.
5. She is uniquely talented in a way where her weekend meetings adds millions of baht to Thai Airways’ bottom line, and therefor worth every baht.

 

I ordered the possibilities from most to least likely.

 

And sorry @HHTel for going on about this, I know I should just drop it, but the numbers just doesn’t make sense: You could tell me that she was selling cosmetics on Facebook and making 45,000 baht/day, and I would give you the benefit of the doubt, but that she basically has a salaried position with Thai Airways puts an upper limit on what is believable, because where selling cosmetics on Facebook means you could have thousands of customers each day paying you pennies, with Thai Airways you have an HR department that needs to have a pretty good explanation as to why they are paying a 22 year old student at least 10 times the market rate for her services.

There is no chain.  I see them almost daily.  Option 5 has some weight.  She has had some massive bonuses due to what she has achieved with Thai Airways.  This is a girl who made a million plus on the market using her pocket money while at school.

[lkn]

4 hours ago, HHTel said:

There is no chain.  I see them almost daily.  Option 5 has some weight.  She has had some massive bonuses due to what she has achieved with Thai Airways.  This is a girl who made a million plus on the market using her pocket money while at school.

It’s not like the smarter you are, the more you can make on the stock market. You can do proper analysis of the equities you’re buying, use various financial instruments to minimize your risk, etc., but with such boring trading, you’re not turning pocket money into millions in a few years. You would have to do leveraged day trading for that. Is that what she did?

 

And now you’re also telling us that she gets bonuses in addition to her high *daily* salary?

 

If all these money really exist, I sincerely doubt it is the product of honest labour. Basically every claim you have made on its own already sounds suspect; it sounds like it is cover stories made up by a person who doesn’t really understand the stock market, tertiary education, and how salaries work in big companies with HR departments.

[Stevetaylor123]

40 minutes ago, lkn said:

It’s not like the smarter you are, the more you can make on the stock market. You can do proper analysis of the equities you’re buying, use various financial instruments to minimize your risk, etc., but with such boring trading, you’re not turning pocket money into millions in a few years. You would have to do leveraged day trading for that. Is that what she did?

 

And now you’re also telling us that she gets bonuses in addition to her high *daily* salary?

 

If all these money really exist, I sincerely doubt it is the product of honest labour. Basically every claim you have made on its own already sounds suspect; it sounds like it is cover stories made up by a person who doesn’t really understand the stock market, tertiary education, and how salaries work in big companies with HR departments.

 

Now the cynic in me might suggest that some Thai people are prone to the odd lie to elevate their status

[DrTuner]

17 hours ago, mommysboy said:

People are chipping in with examples of people doing well. These people are very well qualified or have some special skill.  In no way are these people representative of typical working class (blue collar, tertiary educated/ poor) people.  These examples are really more suited to the question: What do middle class/well educated people earn?

True, but I guess that's because not many have Thai construction workers as friends or even family members. The existence of the farang ATM auto-elevates surroundings to middle class.

[HHTel]

I'm not commenting further on this girl except to say that there are a number of people here that would back up the story.  I'm sure in time she will be known. I made the point which has been thrashed to death.

[Scooby and Puppy]

On 8/6/2018 at 8:58 AM, nausea said:

Sounds about right; interestingly, your example destroys the myth of "lazy" Thais, at least at the working class level. 

They’re are still the lazy ones.. my wife has a donut franchise, (does well), but she can’t get the staff to sell at the traffic lights very easily. On a normal/good day they can make about 580-600 baht a day,  but they just start for a week, and then not turn up. The only ones who stay are her immediate family members, the rest just come and go. I thought it was pretty good money for a non-educated thai.. 

[lkn]

9 hours ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

They’re are still the lazy ones.. my wife has a donut franchise, (does well), but she can’t get the staff to sell at the traffic lights very easily. On a normal/good day they can make about 580-600 baht a day,  but they just start for a week, and then not turn up. The only ones who stay are her immediate family members, the rest just come and go. I thought it was pretty good money for a non-educated thai.. 

Are you saying that the Thais your wife employs are on a commission and on a good day they can make 580-600 baht if they stand at the traffic lights (outside)?

 

They probably don’t return because it’s simply not worth it. When you factor in rest days, vacation, health care, etc. then they are at best on minimum wage, so a job at 7-Eleven would probably be more attractive, as at least then they have A/C and don’t have to hustle strangers to make a commission.

[Rc2702]

10 hours ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

They’re are still the lazy ones.. my wife has a donut franchise, (does well), but she can’t get the staff to sell at the traffic lights very easily. On a normal/good day they can make about 580-600 baht a day,  but they just start for a week, and then not turn up. The only ones who stay are her immediate family members, the rest just come and go. I thought it was pretty good money for a non-educated thai.. 

I brought some donuts once from a traffic lights. I'd have brought them again if they had a no sugar option. The other thing we buy is small yoghurt drinks from traffic light sellers but we always check the sell by date.

[sanemax]

10 hours ago, Scooby and Puppy said:

They’re are still the lazy ones.. my wife has a donut franchise, (does well), but she can’t get the staff to sell at the traffic lights very easily. On a normal/good day they can make about 580-600 baht a day,  but they just start for a week, and then not turn up. The only ones who stay are her immediate family members, the rest just come and go. I thought it was pretty good money for a non-educated thai.. 

Its not a very appealing job though is it ?

Standing in the sun all day with exhaust fumes constantly being breathed in and walking up and down traffic banging on car windows

Maybe good money , but horrible work

[lkn]

11 hours ago, sanemax said:

Maybe good money , but horrible work

And maybe not good money: He gave the price for a “good day”, so what is an average day? Thais generally work 25 days/month, so we are close to minimum wage, and if the employees are on a commision based scheme with no base salary, there is probably no social security fund payments being done by the employer, which means no medical insurance and other benefits.

 

It’s a bit disingenuous to come here and tell how the Thais that you are paying peanuts do not return for more and therefore conclude that they are all lazy, but what annoys me more is the statement that this should be “pretty good money for a non-educated thai”. Just because many Thais are forced to work for peanuts does not make it a pretty good deal for them, it’s exploitation, pure and simple!

[Airalee]

On 8/8/2018 at 9:01 PM, lkn said:

Maybe, but the story you have told is (at best) one in a million.

 

To me, your story is weird on a few points. For example that she apparently got a degree in both law and economics a year ahead of schedule. This makes me skeptical because at least the university I attended, no-one would get their degree a year ahead of schedule: That would mean that you had learned less than those taking the full time and/or rushed through it, only taking the minimal amount of courses necessary to get the degree (which does not make you more attractive at the job market).

 

As for the salary, this is also weird from Thai Airways’ point of view. They are paying top dollar for a 22 year old student who is not available to them during regular workdays? That really makes no sense, as they could hire two full time senior employees at the same rate, so why would they go with this 22 year old student who refuse to come in Mon.-Fri. when you would expect most of the people she is working with to be at the office?

 

If Thai Airways is paying her what you say, then she must have some truly unique skills, because it just doesn’t make any sense for them otherwise, but what could this be? I assume she is not the only one who graduated from her university?

Glassdoor has a list of over 500 salaries (entered by employees) for Thai Airways in Sydney (probably are paid more than their Thai compatriots) and not a single position (including many senior ones) even gets into the 100k+ range.  But of course, this 22yo is special.

 

With regards to her fantastic stock investments, is it really so hard to believe that she spent her lunch money when she was 10 years old on NFLX (Netflix) call options? ?

Edited August 12, 2018 by Airalee