Frozen wages compromising standard of living of workers across country

[webfact]

Frozen wages compromising standard of living of workers across country

By WICHIT CHAITRONG 
THE NATION

 

File photo

 

WORKERS ARE expected to reap some gains from political campaigns in the run-up to the upcoming general election, but most of them are still struggling to make ends meet due to both the economic slowdown and disruptions caused by technology, experts said. 

 

A minimum wage committee has proposed a wage rise of between Bt5 and Bt11 for next year.

 

“Workers will get some benefit as the junta-backed government becomes weak and the stage is set for elections,” said Lae Dilokvidhyarat, a labour economist at Chulalongkorn University.

 

He expected the outgoing government to propose a rise in the minimum wage for workers while political parties are also expected to make similar promises. The Yingluck Shinawatra administration in 2012 and 2013 had fulfilled the Pheu Thai Party’s election pledge to raise the daily minimum wage to Bt300. Lae said wages should be increased in order to help workers, as their income had been almost frozen for the past four to five years.

 

“Factory workers have been sustaining themselves by working overtime jobs and it has resulted in a social cost, as they are unable to spend much time with their children,” he pointed out.

 

Yongyuth Chalamwong, who is research director at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) specialising in labour development, said that raising the minimum wage should be announced at the beginning of next year instead of later, as this will allow private companies to adjust wages across the board right away.

 

He expected a significant hike in wages, taking into account the slower growth rate of the economy at about 3-4 per cent next year.

 

“I would like to suggest an automatic minimum wage adjustment based on the rate of inflation,” he said.

 

 

He expressed concerns over shrinking job opportunities for Thai workers partly due to the information revolution. “The government must think carefully before signing the next memorandum of understanding with neighbouring countries on importing labour,” he warned.

 

He suspected that private firms do not make enough efforts to hire Thai workers, as they are advised by the government guidelines. 

 

Manus Kosol, president of Confederation of Thai Labour, said he did not expect an early announcement of a minimum wage hike next year. So far, the tripartite subcommittee responsible for setting the minimum wage in some provinces has proposed a rise of between Bt5 to Bt11, he said. Currently, the daily minimum wage ranges between Bt308 to Bt330 across the country.

 

Manus complained that many manufacturing plants had resorted to outsourcing labour in order to reduce their cost. Such workers are not employees of the company so the practice puts them at a disadvantage. These workers are part of a labour pool managed by labour agents, he added. 

 

Tanit Sorat, president of V-Serve Group, said that the labour sector does not have bargaining power, as factories have the option of deploying advanced robotics or artificial intelligence for their operations. They have to improve their skills and be able to perform many tasks, said Tanit, who is also vice-chairman of the Employers’ Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry.

 

Yongyuth said that universities should introduce more short courses of less than one-year duration, in order to retain labour to catch up with new technology. And the government has to provide subsidies for skills retraining. He said a large number of labourers in the agricultural sector, which employed about 11.6 million workers early this year, earn far less than their counterparts in other sectors. The agricultural gross domestic product per capita is only Bt51,758, which is too little for subsistence.

 

While the service sector employs the largest number of people at 17 million, that sector’s GDP per capita was about Bt354,706 annually. The service sector has absorbed about 1.5 million labourers migrating from the farm sector over the past 10 years, he said.

 

Services such as retail and wholesale business, logistics, hotels and restaurants have the potential to grow and absorb more labour in the coming years, said Yongyuth.

 

The 6.3 million people working in the manufacturing sector (the key sub-sector of the industrial sector) are the highest earners. Manufacturing GDP per capita was estimated at Bt447,619 per annum. He said if Thailand could raise the average earnings of worker to Bt480,000, from the current Bt276,00, the country could get out of the middle-income trap. 

 

He did not agree with a proposal by the Democrat Party for an income guarantee scheme, which will ensure minimum earnings per worker of Bt120,000 annually. “It would cost a lot and Thailand cannot generate that much tax revenue,” he added. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/business/30361269

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-12-28

 

[Eligius]

It makes my blood boil when I see how little so many Thais are paid, when we know that 67% of the wealth of this country is owned by a disgusting, greedy, psychopathic 1% of the population. 

 

The saddest thing to me, though, is that the Thais go on taking it all. There are nearly 70 million of them, for God's sake. There is an old saying: 'Strength in numbers'. The Thais have not woken up to that fact yet - a fact that terrifies the scumbag 1% and haunts their worst nightmares. That is why they must, AT ALL COSTS, keep the Thais dumbed down and grovelling in the dust before the 'Grown-Ups' ('puu-yai').

 

Anyone with a social conscience is justly outraged by what goes on in this country.

[Dave67]

Yes the saying is for the Thais I know, when Thaksin was in charge we ate salmon now we eat noodle up

[marko kok prong]

2 hours ago, Eligius said:

It makes my blood boil when I see how little so many Thais are paid, when we know that 67% of the wealth of this country is owned by a disgusting, greedy, psychopathic 1% of the population. 

 

The saddest thing to me, though, is that the Thais go on taking it all. There are nearly 70 million of them, for God's sake. There is an old saying: 'Strength in numbers'. The Thais have not woken up to that fact yet - a fact that terrifies the scumbag 1% and haunts their worst nightmares. That is why they must, AT ALL COSTS, keep the Thais dumbed down and grovelling in the dust before the 'Grown-Ups' ('puu-yai').

 

Anyone with a social conscience is justly outraged by what goes on in this country.

Well you are lumping all rich Thai's as the same,i believe the late owner of King power and Leicester city grew up poor but through hard work and obvious talent became one of the richest in the country,so while i agree with the majority of your statement it does not apply to all.

[AtoZ]

1 hour ago, marko kok prong said:

Well you are lumping all rich Thai's as the same,i believe the late owner of King power and Leicester city grew up poor but through hard work and obvious talent became one of the richest in the country,so while i agree with the majority of your statement it does not apply to all.

Monopoly given to your by friends is not talent

 

The biggest issue for the smart, regular Thai is the elite won't allow competition in anything except restaurants and massage shops. When there is something brewing, let's quickly outlaw it.

[Thunder26]

The cost of living has increased a lot recently. And especially if you have a family good income is a must, otherwise it's pretty difficult to survive and forget about saving.

[digger70]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The government must think carefully before signing the next memorandum of understanding with neighbouring countries on importing labour,” he warned.

They have to import labour because the Thais don't want to work in the building industry and other low paid jobs.

[Redline]

There will be a point where the rich will not have anyone to keep them rich, and the house of cards will fall because the rest of the world moved on, and because of corruption, a broken education system, and lack of any enforcement, in any capacity, it can’t be salvaged in time.  It’s basically a time bomb

[chama]

Now this could be an interesting campaign issue if presented properly!

[ReMarKable]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:49 AM, Eligius said:

It makes my blood boil when I see how little so many Thais are paid, when we know that 67% of the wealth of this country is owned by a disgusting, greedy, psychopathic 1% of the population. 

 

The saddest thing to me, though, is that the Thais go on taking it all. There are nearly 70 million of them, for God's sake. There is an old saying: 'Strength in numbers'. The Thais have not woken up to that fact yet - a fact that terrifies the scumbag 1% and haunts their worst nightmares. That is why they must, AT ALL COSTS, keep the Thais dumbed down and grovelling in the dust before the 'Grown-Ups' ('puu-yai').

 

Anyone with a social conscience is justly outraged by what goes on in this country.

They are not mature enough to take care of their pets.  Why would they care about abstract social constructions like justice.

[robblok]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:49 AM, Eligius said:

It makes my blood boil when I see how little so many Thais are paid, when we know that 67% of the wealth of this country is owned by a disgusting, greedy, psychopathic 1% of the population. 

 

The saddest thing to me, though, is that the Thais go on taking it all. There are nearly 70 million of them, for God's sake. There is an old saying: 'Strength in numbers'. The Thais have not woken up to that fact yet - a fact that terrifies the scumbag 1% and haunts their worst nightmares. That is why they must, AT ALL COSTS, keep the Thais dumbed down and grovelling in the dust before the 'Grown-Ups' ('puu-yai').

 

Anyone with a social conscience is justly outraged by what goes on in this country.

True, but we seen that just increasing wages like during Yingluck her reign does not work it just drives up prices, like we seen that time. You can't just up wages without upping up productivity.  It not like its a closed economy. 

[Eric Loh]

39 minutes ago, robblok said:

True, but we seen that just increasing wages like during Yingluck her reign does not work it just drives up prices, like we seen that time. You can't just up wages without upping up productivity.  It not like its a closed economy. 

Since you talking about productivity, you can check Thailand Labour Productivity historical data. The all time high was in 2012 at 13.38%. That was the year Yingluck increase the minimum wage to 300B and implemented in April. 

 

You may may also see that productivity dropped 3.66% YOY in June this year from 5.15% previous quarter. 

[robblok]

26 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Since you talking about productivity, you can check Thailand Labour Productivity historical data. The all time high was in 2012 at 13.38%. That was the year Yingluck increase the minimum wage to 300B and implemented in April. 

 

You may may also see that productivity dropped 3.66% YOY in June this year from 5.15% previous quarter. 

So productivity dropped and they want a salary increase.. sound like a plan for disaster. Not that I pretend to know how to solve this because I don't. I just know that Yingluck her plan failed and most expats who live here know it did. After the wages went up all other prices went up too eating away the increase in salary. 

Also many factories have moved and will move if salaries go up, like it or not its not a closed economy. 

 

Not sure what really can be done besides better education leading to better jobs and a different economy. 

[Eric Loh]

22 minutes ago, robblok said:

After the wages went up all other prices went up too eating away the increase in salary. 

Find hard to understand when inflation has barely moved in last 10 years. 

[robblok]

7 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Find hard to understand when inflation has barely moved in last 10 years. 

I guess you don't live in Thailand then, or maybe not at that time as most of us remember that time how the prices went up and how all things changed. Been plenty of topics about it you can look back and see I am not making it up. As for the figures of inflation they are as real as the NIDA polls. 

Edited December 30, 2018 by robblok

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Took this just now. I don't think wages went anywhere in the past decade for ordinary Thai people

 

[chainarong]

Frozen wages are part n parcel of the wages structure of Thailand, there hasn't been much movement from the wages front for decades, Thailand when it comes to wages has no standards , they  don't ever do a half yearly increase based on the inflation rate, so after years of neglect , you only have to look at your Thai friends to see where Thailand is going , south.

[JAG]

On 12/28/2018 at 6:51 PM, digger70 said:

They have to import labour because the Thais don't want to work in the building industry and other low paid jobs.

If they paid decent wages then maybe they would?

[martinhp]

On 12/28/2018 at 6:51 PM, digger70 said:

They have to import labour because the Thais don't want to work in the building industry and other low paid jobs.

its not true the best workers i have are thais .

they come and go on the right time , they can work without supervision all the time.

but most important they are proud in there work.

no burma miranmar or others can work like the thais or be worked with.

in the years it is my experience and as i see it the mir. bur. only work here for money, many are like that but these kind is not the best.

the best kind ,and the ones i pay the most are workers who like there job and care about the result .

all like this is only thais. but when this is said i prefer thais to, as it is there country .

i think you see the par.bur.in the big construction sites as a result of the salary dumping .

result you get what you pay for incl.no chance of work after deadlines.

and lots of after repairs .

but what i hate the most of them are they are unstable and dumping the price .

so they conclusion here is thais can not afford to work 350 or450 bath a day . i pay 700 to 1000 a day depending on skills but in reality i pay 100 to 150 a day in comparison as the amount and quality is that much better and faster.

there is a lot more to this ,than what i described .i have 10 years education and more than 20 years experience in this trade and i worked with many and the thais are not bad workers at all ,but fairly unstructured .

i do as know and structure it and you get the best result with thais always .

as i mention before this governments heavy taxation has resulted in not only less happiness but an decreased livingstandard.

it was much better under the Taksins no matter you like them or not ,and this should be our guideline ,not our interpretation of democracy .

and today the small contracters are more likely to cheat you because of this ,it gives thais a bad reputation aswell .

it was not that frequent before .the corruption was much cheaper before too.

there are so many before as i see it ,in my days too not only my employee but most `before `for them. 

my wife run a bar and the picture the same, even the tourist complain more and run from bar bills she sell beer 60 bath in main area .

but still run from bills 5 to 800 bath so something else must tricky this.

i believe the heavy taxation made it hard and when i compare what i experience ,much better for the little man with the Takisins ,and this is a must to me .

people did not need to live in poverty ,if they where not lazy' before '.

today is a different story.

[robblok]

12 hours ago, JAG said:

If they paid decent wages then maybe they would?

It still pays better as farming and they still did not change jobs.. so its not all about money these jobs are just not desirable. Why else do you think so many foreigners are in those jobs. 

 

Your probably a lot more skilled with your hands then I am but I have tried to get handymen here and believe me they get payed quite a bit for shoddy work and its still hard to find them. Hard to get them for 500 bt a day. They rather be paid per job and then do a lousy job but fast. 

[robblok]

3 hours ago, martinhp said:

its not true the best workers i have are thais .

they come and go on the right time , they can work without supervision all the time.

but most important they are proud in there work.

no burma miranmar or others can work like the thais or be worked with.

in the years it is my experience and as i see it the mir. bur. only work here for money, many are like that but these kind is not the best.

the best kind ,and the ones i pay the most are workers who like there job and care about the result .

all like this is only thais. but when this is said i prefer thais to, as it is there country .

i think you see the par.bur.in the big construction sites as a result of the salary dumping .

result you get what you pay for incl.no chance of work after deadlines.

and lots of after repairs .

but what i hate the most of them are they are unstable and dumping the price .

so they conclusion here is thais can not afford to work 350 or450 bath a day . i pay 700 to 1000 a day depending on skills but in reality i pay 100 to 150 a day in comparison as the amount and quality is that much better and faster.

there is a lot more to this ,than what i described .i have 10 years education and more than 20 years experience in this trade and i worked with many and the thais are not bad workers at all ,but fairly unstructured .

i do as know and structure it and you get the best result with thais always .

as i mention before this governments heavy taxation has resulted in not only less happiness but an decreased livingstandard.

it was much better under the Taksins no matter you like them or not ,and this should be our guideline ,not our interpretation of democracy .

and today the small contracters are more likely to cheat you because of this ,it gives thais a bad reputation aswell .

it was not that frequent before .the corruption was much cheaper before too.

there are so many before as i see it ,in my days too not only my employee but most `before `for them. 

my wife run a bar and the picture the same, even the tourist complain more and run from bar bills she sell beer 60 bath in main area .

but still run from bills 5 to 800 bath so something else must tricky this.

i believe the heavy taxation made it hard and when i compare what i experience ,much better for the little man with the Takisins ,and this is a must to me .

people did not need to live in poverty ,if they where not lazy' before '.

today is a different story.

Could you tell me what heavy taxation the government put in place as far as I know the income tax has not changed at all. It would be a blessing if they taxed things more because as it is Thailand has a low tax base so please do tell me how taxes have gone up. Vat stayed the same and I havent seen a difference in either income or company tax. 

[Lemonltr]

A daily wage should have been scrapped long ago and replaced by an hourly rate. Exploitation is rampant. 

[digger70]

5 hours ago, martinhp said:

its not true the best workers i have are thais .

they come and go on the right time , they can work without supervision all the time.

but most important they are proud in there work.

no burma miranmar or others can work like the thais or be worked with.

in the years it is my experience and as i see it the mir. bur. only work here for money, many are like that but these kind is not the best.

the best kind ,and the ones i pay the most are workers who like there job and care about the result .

all like this is only thais. but when this is said i prefer thais to, as it is there country .

i think you see the par.bur.in the big construction sites as a result of the salary dumping .

result you get what you pay for incl.no chance of work after deadlines.

and lots of after repairs .

but what i hate the most of them are they are unstable and dumping the price .

so they conclusion here is thais can not afford to work 350 or450 bath a day . i pay 700 to 1000 a day depending on skills but in reality i pay 100 to 150 a day in comparison as the amount and quality is that much better and faster.

there is a lot more to this ,than what i described .i have 10 years education and more than 20 years experience in this trade and i worked with many and the thais are not bad workers at all ,but fairly unstructured .

i do as know and structure it and you get the best result with thais always .

as i mention before this governments heavy taxation has resulted in not only less happiness but an decreased livingstandard.

it was much better under the Taksins no matter you like them or not ,and this should be our guideline ,not our interpretation of democracy .

and today the small contracters are more likely to cheat you because of this ,it gives thais a bad reputation aswell .

it was not that frequent before .the corruption was much cheaper before too.

there are so many before as i see it ,in my days too not only my employee but most `before `for them. 

my wife run a bar and the picture the same, even the tourist complain more and run from bar bills she sell beer 60 bath in main area .

but still run from bills 5 to 800 bath so something else must tricky this.

i believe the heavy taxation made it hard and when i compare what i experience ,much better for the little man with the Takisins ,and this is a must to me .

people did not need to live in poverty ,if they where not lazy' before '.

today is a different story.

It must be different up where you are then here, down here it's the other way round as what you say, there are no thais working in the building industry only except as non reliables and foreman,  the foreigners work whole days for a pittance, the Thais only work a few hours a day ,,,if the work at all..most of the time they don't even talk to the other workers the Thais they think that they are better then the foreigner workers.

[DrTuner]

On 12/28/2018 at 2:42 PM, AtoZ said:

When there is something brewing, let's quickly outlaw it.

Brewing itself (Craft beer industry) being a prime example, while not outlawed, the regulations are set so ThaiBev, Singha Corp & co are the only ones who can pass the high production limits to be able to freely distribute their (inferior) products. 

[DrTuner]

23 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Took this just now. I don't think wages went anywhere in the past decade for ordinary Thai people

 

I think it's a bit up. Depends where, but I remember signs in Pattaya (the beer garden at the start of walking street IIRC) looking for waitresses for 5-6k baht/month sometime last decade. Nowhere near the inflation though.

[BestB]

17 years i have lived in this country, 13 years i have worked and owned business.

 

One trend which is happening, with each wage rise, there are less and less people looking for job, even less show up for interview and even less stay in the job.

 

Even 6 years ago, an advert would get at least 5-6 applicants, when employed they would hang around for around 5-6 months, 

 

Now with all the wage rises, weekly adverts, may get 1 applicant in a month, who hangs around for a month if lucky and half the time, he/she causes more damage and loss than his/her salary.

 

Those who are good employees, with value to add, do not need 5-11 baht pay rises, employers pay them way above minimum wage.

 

Ones who just fill up the space and do little as possible most certainly do not deserve any pay rises. 

 

If they struggle to make ends meet, perhaps they should work little harder, instead of doing as little as possible.

 

Factory workers, just like everywhere else in the world are lowest paid staff, and yes working over time helps but you do not spend time with a family, thats what happens all over the world.

[BestB]

On 12/30/2018 at 12:05 PM, robblok said:

So productivity dropped and they want a salary increase.. sound like a plan for disaster. Not that I pretend to know how to solve this because I don't. I just know that Yingluck her plan failed and most expats who live here know it did. After the wages went up all other prices went up too eating away the increase in salary. 

Also many factories have moved and will move if salaries go up, like it or not its not a closed economy. 

 

Not sure what really can be done besides better education leading to better jobs and a different economy. 

If they stayed in the same job, they may have less money troubles, but when you work for few months in a year and the rest you spend in the village getting drunk or swinging in the hammock, its impossible to get out of financial rot.

 

Most factories and business i know give out massive bonuses at the end of the year but ONLY to those who have worked for at least 1 year. Some places give 3 months salary as a bonus, plus the monthly, so 4 months salary.

 

Look at NYE and Songkran, many shops close up and go back to the village, this is when you make most money, but going back to village takes priority each and every year.

 

Keep in mind, going back to village is not just that, it also means handing out 1000 baht notes to each and every family member and their buffalo. 

 

Visit home cost all the money they made and saved, plus the travelling costs.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

I think it's a bit up. Depends where, but I remember signs in Pattaya (the beer garden at the start of walking street IIRC) looking for waitresses for 5-6k baht/month sometime last decade. Nowhere near the inflation though.

 

I think in 2004 when I first visited Bangkok the absolute minimum salary in "established" restaurants you see at the mall (Fuji, Mac, Japan buffets, etc) has been 9000b for a full time work.

[BestB]

28 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

I think in 2004 when I first visited Bangkok the absolute minimum salary in "established" restaurants you see at the mall (Fuji, Mac, Japan buffets, etc) has been 9000b for a full time work.

I think you very confused, in 2004 it was 6000

[observer90210]

Is it not really interesting to see prices get regularly hiked on various domains and yet salaries (and other costs to function) remain so low ?.... a bunch of greedy few, are exploiting the consumers and workers should they be Thai, Farang, Foreigners or whoever....