Workers seek Bt400 minimum wage and price controls across country: poll

[webfact]

Workers seek Bt400 minimum wage and price controls across country: poll

By THE NATION

 

File photo

 

A MAJORITY OF Thai workers want the minimum daily wage set at a flat rate of Bt400 once the new government is in place. But, fearing a hike in prices of necessities because of the move, they also called for price controls, a recent survey by Bangkok Poll revealed yesterday.

 

Thai workers have been waiting for the Central Wage Committee’s decision on new daily wage rates to be implemented from June 1 onwards, after the central committee on April 22 ordered the provincial sub-panels for 46 provinces to review and re-submit their increment rates to the academic and screening sub-panel. 

 

Although the central committee has yet to reach a conclusion, which would then be submitted for the Cabinet’s nod by May 14, a central committee source revealed the group may resolve to vary the rate of increase across the nation. The committee may agree to 46 provinces increasing the daily wage by Bt2, and 31 provinces by Bt2-Bt10. Bangkok (whose daily wage is now Bt325) and Phuket (now at Bt330) may get a Bt10 hike, while Samut Prakan (now Bt325) could get a Bt7 bump, and Chon Buri and Rayong (both now Bt330) could each get Bt5, the source said.

 

The Bangkok University Research Centre recently polled 1,160 workers in Bangkok and provinces in the vicinity about their hopes for a minimum-wage hike. It found 42.1 per cent of workers earned the minimum amount needed to meet daily expenses but had nothing left for saving, while 31.6 per cent said they were short of money to pay daily expenses and were forced to borrow. Only 26.3 said they earned enough to cover daily expenses and keep some for savings. A total of 49.5 per cent said the promises of various political parties in the recent national election for a flat-rate daily wage at Bt400-Bt425 had “much and very much” impacted their decision when voting while 50.5 per cent said otherwise. 

 

Once the new government is in place, over half of the respondents expected the minimum daily wage to increase. Some 43 per cent of these people hoped for an immediately effective hike at a flat-rate of Bt400, while 15.3 per cent hoped the flat-rate Bt400 hike would be implemented in 1-2 years and 3.4 per cent hoped it would be in effect within three years. Some 38.3 per cent didn’t specify a time frame. 

 

 

The poll also found that 85.9 per cent of workers were worried over increased commodity product prices after a flat-rate Bt400 hike was implemented, and so 79 per cent of them also urged that the authorities cap the prices of goods to minimise impacts on the cost of living. 

 

One-fifth (21 per cent) noted their fears about job termination and lay-offs as a result of a wage hike, while another 21.6 per cent said such a big hike would mean no increment for years afterward. 

 

Asked if they would be interested in developing their skills if government agencies offered such training to meet a standard to be used in consideration of a wage increment, 62 per cent said yes “very much”.

 

The poll found they also wanted the new government to: control prices of commodity goods (79 per cent); provide and ensure welfare, worker safety and medical coverage for workers (53.6 per cent), create jobs and reduce the unemployment rate (37.7 per cent).

 

Last year, the daily minimum wage increased in the range of Bt5-Bt22 among seven provincial clusters with Phuket, Chon Buri and Rayong having the highest rate wage at Bt330 a day. As of now, Thailand has seven daily minimum wage rates: Bt308 (in the three southernmost border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat), Bt310 (in 22 provinces), Bt315 (in 21 provinces), Bt318 (in seven provinces), Bt320 (in 14 provinces including Khon Kaen and Ubon Ratchathani), Bt325 (in seven provinces including Bangkok and Samut Prakan) and Bt330. The average minimum wage is Bt315.97.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30368646

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-01

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[quandow]

It always makes me shake my head. Big picture, there is enough money to go around for everyone to have a decent standard of living. Corporate greed destroys this.

[NotYourBusiness]

Anyone wanting to get an education on minimum wage should watch this video. Peter fields ALL the normal and reasonable questions presented (morals, poverty, supporting a family, etc.) by the host with some very common sense answers. Of course, once a socialist, always a socialist, so I don't think this will change anyone's mind. But very hard to argue with logic he presents.

 

We must realize that raising the minimum wage does NOT guarantee prosperity for everyone. If it did then we could just raise the minimum wage to ONE MILLION baht per day and everyone would be rich! What it DOES guarantee is that jobs worth less than the minimum wage will GO UNDONE. And that hurts the very people the minimum wage is intended to help. Outstanding conservative and free market commentary on the subject:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6LtyFTEdis

Edited May 1, 2019 by NotYourBusiness

[attrayant]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A MAJORITY OF Thai workers want the minimum daily wage set at a flat rate of Bt400 once the new government is in place. But, fearing a hike in prices of necessities because of the move, they also called for price controls

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

[MaxLee]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Workers seek Bt400 minimum wage and price controls across country: poll

Ironically you can't have it both ways in the world of dog eat dog capitalism

[attrayant]

19 minutes ago, NotYourBusiness said:

Anyone wanting to get an education on minimum wage should watch this video. Peter fields ALL the normal and reasonable questions presented (morals, poverty, supporting a family, etc.) by the host with some very common sense answers. Of course, once a socialist, always a socialist, so I don't think this will change anyone's mind. But very hard to argue with logic he presents.

 

I stopped watching at the 22 second mark when he said "people make rational decisions".  

[AI5AASIA]

3 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

Tooth fairy, PM, Money tree?

[AI5AASIA]

Buy Low, Sell High?

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A MAJORITY OF Thai workers want the minimum daily wage set at a flat rate of Bt400 once the new government is in place. But, fearing a hike in prices of necessities because of the move

This is not an unheard of issue even among developed nations.

• Raising the minimum wage affects employment because historically, high unemployment goes hand-in-hand with high inflation. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising-minimum-wage-increase-inflation.asp

However, Thailand historically has an 'alleged' virtually zero unemployment rate. If true, then employers are 'locked' into their existing workforce or otherwise face wage & benefit competition from workers and/or other businesses or otherwise suffer business inefficiency and lower revenues.

 

If the unemployment rate is on the other hand considered moderate (ie., discount migrant workers) then:

• Suffice it to say, raising the minimum wage to an excessively high rate would exert inflationary pressure on the economy, but increasing it to keep pace with inflation would only have a minimal effect. ditto ref.

Since enactment of the Bt300 minimum daily wage, actual and proposed increases in the minimum on an annual average basis doesn't by my estimate come near to exceeding even half of the annual average inflation rate. The government can impose more price controls as a means to appease worker's fears of inflation but it's currently economically unnecessary.  

[new2here]

It always makes me shake my head. Big picture, there is enough money to go around for everyone to have a decent standard of living. Corporate greed destroys this.

I don’t know that it’s “greed”’per se... rather I think it’s more of a natural “push-pull” in terms of wages and the inherent power of the employER and the power of the employEE.

Naturally the employee wants the highest wage payable - to a degree they don’t (usually) have anything “at risk” so to speak in terms of capital assets etc in the job or company.... so their primary measurement is cash in hand salary... for the employer it’s nearly the exact opposite.. they DO have assets at risk (call me the shareholders) and as such, seek to have the lowest labor cost as possible.

So, I tend to think the issue is more reflective of the supply-v-demand of the labor in question.. I think for lower wage positions, the reality is that there is more labor supply chasing fewer positions... as such, there’s not a lot of economic need or incentive to raise wages.

Overall I tend to think the push-pull works pretty well - especially in the lower end of the economic system - in the when the two sides finally do agree, it’s usually at the lowest point the employee will accept and the highest point at which the employer will pay. So I don’t think it’s greed, but more a reflection of the somewhat natural power balance between the two parties.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[NotYourBusiness]

14 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

I stopped watching at the 22 second mark when he said "people make rational decisions".  

Although it is probably true that people make irrational decisions, the corrective action of a free market ensures that irrational decisions are painful. Hopefully the maker of those decisions learns to make better decisions. And if they don't learn, then they need to get used to the pain, because sorry, a country cannot plan it's economy around their faults. Watch the video.

[NotYourBusiness]

26 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

True, and another viewpoint is "I want to get paid more, but I don't want to learn the skills necessary to be worth more to my employer." Get off Facebook and open khanacademy.

Edited May 1, 2019 by NotYourBusiness

[NotYourBusiness]

Singapore has no minimum wage.

[zydeco]

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

Yeah, they want an extra US$3 per day. How dare they!

[suzannegoh]

4 minutes ago, NotYourBusiness said:

Singapore has no minimum wage.

Correct, though imposing one has recently been the subject of political debate there.

[NotYourBusiness]

1 minute ago, zydeco said:

Yeah, they want an extra US$3 per day. How dare they!

That decision would be up to the employer. And if this is a feel good exercise, why not give them $100 per day?

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

In other words: I want enough money to survive if I work 40 hours plus.

[NotYourBusiness]

1 minute ago, mommysboy said:

In other words: I want enough money to survive if I work 40 hours plus.

I can see you didn't watch the video ????

[metisdead]

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[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

The income stream from corporate greed.

[Cheops]

Yeah, let's raise it again. The raise from a couple of years ago from 200 to 300 baht has led the prices go up a lot. Basically the raise did not give the people more spending power, but LESS.

 

And they want another raise to deal with the inflated prices? What do they expect will happen? Oh, but we also want that the prices will not go up. Right...

 

After the last big raise already some big multinationals moved out or stopped major investments, since other countries offer cheaper labour. By raising the minimum wage to 400, for sure some big companies will think twice before investing in labour intensive sectors.

[Krataiboy]

1 hour ago, NotYourBusiness said:

Singapore has no minimum wage.

Neither do most of the less prosperous Asian and African economies which, it could be argued, need them most.

[zyphodb]

If you go to the Isaan villages you will find that very few people get the present minimum wage of 300Bht, they're getting 200-250 if they're lucky...

[Antonymous]

Supply and demand. If you are referring to uneducated, unskilled, casual labour then yes, they are lucky to find any employment at 200-250/day because there are too many Epsilon-minus semi-morons chasing too few job opportunities.

 

I bet even in Isaan villages qualified electricians and engineers, or anyone who has been trained and has a skill, are being paid a lot more than 200-250/day.

 

And that’s how it should be.

 

Minimum wage (established by the government and not by the market) is a disastrous policy for Thailand.

[khunPer]

2 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

In other words, "I want to get paid more, but I don't want the cost of things to increase".  I wonder where they expect this extra money to come from?

Bad experience from last time they got a minimum pay-rise to 300 baht a day some years ago; most of the prices went up, because the workers had a pay-rise, some even complained that they could buy less than before for their new high salary...

[djayz]

Offering the employees a higher salary is all fine and good, but what are the employers going to get in return? Better qualified staff? More dedicated employees? Are the workers going to cut down on the time they spend on social media to an absolute minimum, or better again, completely turn it off during work hours? It's a two way street. Business must get something in return if they pay more. 

[NotYourBusiness]

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Neither do most of the less prosperous Asian and African economies which, it could be argued, need them most.

I can see you didn't watch the video in post #3 ???? because, it can't be argued. You have it backwards.

Edited May 1, 2019 by NotYourBusiness

[mommysboy]

3 hours ago, NotYourBusiness said:

I can see you didn't watch the video ????

I don't need a video to tell me what is in front of my nose.  I operate on reality.

[NotYourBusiness]

3 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

I don't need a video to tell me what is in front of my nose.  I operate on reality.

Good to know.

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, djayz said:

Offering the employees a higher salary is all fine and good, but what are the employers going to get in return? Better qualified staff? More dedicated employees? Are the workers going to cut down on the time they spend on social media to an absolute minimum, or better again, completely turn it off during work hours? It's a two way street. Business must get something in return if they pay more. 

Assumes that the economy is working well- it isn't, and businesses are efficient, they're often mired in debt.  So, workers are asked to be ever more 'efficient' to make up for a system that doesn't work, and are blamed when things so wrong.