Average pay of Bangkokians???

[Enoon]

 

18 hours ago, Jan0 said:

 

I think they are blessed through the tourism industry as a very large portion of GDP comes from tourism....

 

Wiki gives a maximum of 17.7%.

 

The important thing about tourist income is the way it gets distributed.

 

It feeds a lot of mouths that might otherwise get very little.

 

A substantial amount of it finds its way to the poorer people/areas.

 

That is why it has become an important factor in the stability of Thai society.

 

As far as incomes are concerned, averages are not very helpful in societies where a few earn vast amounts and the majority very much less.  Not very helpful at all in Helot or slave owning societies. ie Average income in Imperial Rome was probably "good".

 

Anyone interested in "the life of people" would be better off finding out into what income bracket do most people, or the largest minority, fall.

 

This is from 2015 and gives an indication of how well people get by (day to day) on minimum wage in given countries.  Thailand is one of the featured countries.  For anyone not wanting to read it the estimate is that it took 193% of a days minimum wage in Thailand:

 

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20151215-the-best-and-worst-places-for-people-on-minimum-wage

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by Enoon

[Enoon]

15 minutes ago, Brayka said:

I know neighbors gardener earns 7000 a month. Has two kids and a car, so not much and still they have money to let the oldest go the university. Some times the men’s parents give little extra, but overall it’s not much.

The soldiers and policeman are paid around 18000, and I wonder how much a colonel has!

 

Money for car/university earned or borrowed?

 

 

[Nanaplaza666]

21 hours ago, Happy Grumpy said:

In my old housing estate the houses cost around 35,000,000 baht, a million USD, average income was probably around 500,000 to millions of baht per month.

 

The security were probably earning 12k a month.

 

The gardeners a bit less.

 

Our maid was on less than 20k.

35.ooo.ooo baht = 1.000.000 dollars ???? Loooooong time ago 

[smiggley]

I have a small farm in Chaiyaphum and cannot get anyone to work for me full time for 500 baht a day, that is just general farm work Monday to Friday. Plenty who only want to work 1 or 2 days but no one for a Month.

[khunPer]

22 hours ago, Jan0 said:

I have a friend in Bangkok who admitted receiving a monthly salary of 12000 baht

That sounds fair enough, depending of the work.

 

The daily minimum salary is around 315 baht – it varies a bit from province to province – so with a weekly day off a monthly minimum pay could be in the level of around 8,500 to 9,000 baht. A worker employed in a company often will pay 5 percent social security deducted in the salary, and the company pays another 5 percent on top, minimum 500 baht, maximum 1,500 baht. Social security covers free health in a registered public hospital, unemployment fee for a limited period, paid child birth leave, a small child support fee for the first years (think it's around 500 baht a month now), some saving for a small retirement payment.

 

In some jobs the workers have two days only off in a month, whilst in others, higher paid job, they will have both Saturday and Sunday off, or 2 days a week.

 

Many unskilled Thais earn little more than the minimum salary, and with just some knowledge or experience between 10,000 and up to 15,000 baht a month is normal in urban areas or tourist destinations, whilst in rural farming areas the pay might even be lower. Low paid jobs often include some level of accommodation, which could be a room to sleep in, and in some cases even a free daily meal or meals.

 

Many Thais are not residents in the area they work – might be registered as resident in the village or town they originate from – but travel to work in a major city, or in a tourist area. If their job don't include accommodation they might share a room two or three together, to cut expenses, or rent a small room of their own. Typically a room with bath/toilet and some kitchen facility will cost a monthly rate around 3,000 baht plus/minus, depending of area. Often both water and electricity comes on top by meter, which can be a few hundred baht extra.

 

Many Thais are self employed – could be anything from a specialized building construction worker to a street kitchen owner, or... – and they can make way more a month than the minimum wage; 20,000 to 30,000 baht a month is possible.

 

Low income under 15,000 baht a month don't pay income tax, only a minority of Thais pay income tax, about 5 percent of the population.

 

Skilled or educated workers are paid more, typically from 15,000 baht a month and up, depending of education and experience. Fresh from university governmental employed starts around 15,000 baht, but will have other benefits on top; whilst when privately employed the salary might be slightly higher.

 

You can get an idea from this 2020 salary graph...

–it originates from the Thailand Salary Guide 2020, which you can download.

 

Living conditions for low income workers would be in a room as part of the salary, or in a small single or shared room, costing the individual worker from around 1,000 baht a month up to 3,500 baht a month. Food might often be bought from street kitchens for 30 baht to 60 baht a meal, depending of area and kind of food. 3,000 baht a month is easily spend on food, if you are on your own accommodation.

 

Many workers often send money home to their family, which can be anything from younger family members supporting the parents or grand parent, or they might have a child, or children, living at home by their parents or grand parents, and send money for expenses. It's custom that younger family members – and often especially the females – support parents in older age.

 

In higher levels the salaries can be relative "extremely" high, with a monthly pay from 30,000 baht and up to way over 100,000 baht. My next door Thai neighbor makes 325,000 baht a month – I'm however not sure if that is before or after withheld income tax – me, the "rich" foreigner, is no way near that, I'm actally relative "poor" in comparison.

 

Income tax starts a 5 percent for what you earn over around 180,000 baht a year – there are various personal deductions – and up to 35 percent as maximum, for income over 4 million baht a year. Little more than 4 million Thais pays income tax, whilst around 11 million Thais are registered for "Withholding Income Tax Return". You can find the income tax table and information here.

 

Hope this answer your questions...????

[khunPer]

21 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I was one of the highest paid guys in my field working in London, I couldn't make the average wage.

Mainly because the stockbrokers, day traders, bankers and other fat cats made millions.

Seems like you choose the wrong profession...

[ivor bigun]

We are so lucky that our son started his school life in the UK then went to a good private school here in Thailand ,the fact he speaks perfect English has helped in his career so much , judging by his salary ,he is very highly paid compared with most workers listed on here.his girlfriend also earns good money ,mind you unlike him she spends it like water .

[Happy Grumpy]

2 hours ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

35.ooo.ooo baht = 1.000.000 dollars ???? Loooooong time ago 

Yeah, around 10 years ago. 

[Alsyapal]

I recently lived in a village close to Phang Khon in the North East of Thailand.   My friend and his wife both work locally for 7000 baht a month - minimum wage is only 300 baht a day.  They only have a cold water shower and one gas ring for cooking.  They have a farm but only grow rice and vegetables.  Protein comes from fish from the river and ponds as well as frogs, water snails and the occasional field rat accompanied by the sticky rice and vegetables.     They live in a reasonable sized house but it is falling into disrepair because they have no money to fix it.  They rent a scooter for transport and the repayments are expensive and over a couple of years with interest they pay double the cash price.   They are poor by any standards yet give food to the Buddhist monks who walk the streets every morning for their breakfast.   Many of the young women go to Bangkok or Pattaya where they earn around a 1000 baht a time selling themselves on the streets or bars.   Many are reputed to send the money they earn home to their families in the villages. There are restaurants in the village that cater for the locals and a dish of noodles or fried rice costs only 30 baht which is under a pound.

[speckio]

you look at the thai average salary... yet you will notice high end cars everywhere in Bangkok... especially Mercedes which can run up to $250,000 because of import taxes (economics in this city make no sense)

 

If you want to live in bangkok on a thai salary you will need to make quite a bit of adjustments..

Example- a cup of coffee at starbucks will cost about 120 baht ($4) which is OK if you are living on a western salary...but if you are on a thai salary its very expensive... you can easily feed yourself for the entire day for 120 baht... average plate of rice or bowl of noodles is around 40 baht.

 

note... living on 12,000 baht in Bangkok doesn't leave much wiggle room for non essentials.

You need to making 40k and up if you want a semi western living style imo.

120,000 baht/month and up is possible if you get head hunted by a western/international company operating in Bangkok.

 

i believe minimum wage is 300 baht a day 12 hour shift.

its not uncommon for some people to work 6-7 days a week on this salary.

gas attendant, security guards, and construction workers live under these conditions

 

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by speckio

[Jaggg88]

On 2/25/2020 at 8:26 AM, BritManToo said:

High school graduate 9k/month, University graduate 14k/month

Street food seller = less, Member of Parliament = more.

 

Is the average salary in a town relevant to anything?

I was one of the highest paid guys in my field working in London, I couldn't make the average wage.

Mainly because the stockbrokers, day traders, bankers and other fat cats made millions.

I think I remember you......did you have a hotdog stand? 

[Thian]

On 2/25/2020 at 2:42 PM, cooked said:

Possibly on ฿8000 a month + overtime.

Possibly living in a cold water 3 metres x 6 metres concrete room with three - four others. I know a few like that. 

They wouldn't understand what a 'normal standard of living' means. Often straight off the farm, no schooling to speak of - a dog's life.

Wow there's the expert....guess you've never seen the villaparks with one or more new big cars at the driveway? And what about all the stuff for sale in the malls? You thought that a person with 8k a month could afford that? Dream on dude.

[Thian]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:34 PM, cooked said:

<deleted> are you talking about? This is the way many many Thais live. I have been down to BK and Chonburi many times visiting family, bringing them rice and other stuff from the farm, and seen the way they live. Yes, I consider that to be 'in depth', I have even slept in these hutches, seen them come home after double shifts with no one at home to cook for them or keep things clean.

The fact that you haven't noticed is possibly beside the point. Or maybe you haven't noticed that there are other people than Farangs living here?

A condo in BKK costs around a million or more (much more)...so who's buying them??? Same for all the cars....they start at 600.000 and up....

[saakura]

On 2/25/2020 at 3:26 PM, BritManToo said:

I was one of the highest paid guys in my field working in London, I couldn't make the average wage.

Mainly because the stockbrokers, day traders, bankers and other fat cats made millions.

Everyone else was at fault except you.

[ChaiyaTH]

My wife got 18K right after graduating in the hospital but doing the same job in CM pays only around 14K a month. 
Not to forget she will have to pay 3.5-4K a month education debt for the next 12-15 years.

She could eventually get to 24K perhaps, but by that time she would be 40 years old as well + need to save pension.
Currently pay her myself and set-up a small business for her as it is not worth the time to be working there.
Now she makes 10-15K a month with merely 1-2 hours of daily work selling stuff online. I supplement another 5-10K for food + pay rent etc.

Edited February 26, 2020 by ChaiyaTH

[saakura]

On 2/25/2020 at 5:58 PM, Jan0 said:

Yes I agree with you, In Australia the legal minimum hourly rate is $20. That means if your earning 12000Baht that is 12000/30 = 400 Baht a day. In au $20 = 400Baht so our minimum hourly wage is worth one day of their pay. Their may be some Thai's earning good money but their is also westerners who earns good money as well.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they earn less then 12000 and live  "dog's life"

 

I think they are blessed through the tourism industry as a very large portion of GDP comes from tourism....

Due to the cost of living, an Australian on a minimum wage has a worse life than a Thai on minimum wage, which is why he comes to Thailand or other poorer countries and shack up with some girl even lower than him, with nothing in common between them. Then turns to alcohol and starts berating everything. Many well educated guys who are married to educated and professionally successful girls are leading a hsppy life here.

[emptypockets]

9 hours ago, khunPer said:

Seems like you choose the wrong profession...

Which one.....teacher or builder or.....?

[BritManToo]

9 hours ago, saakura said:

Due to the cost of living, an Australian on a minimum wage has a worse life than a Thai on minimum wage, which is why he comes to Thailand or other poorer countries and shack up with some girl even lower than him, with nothing in common between them. Then turns to alcohol and starts berating everything. Many well educated guys who are married to educated and professionally successful girls are leading a hsppy life here.

I agree with you, apart from the 'girl even lower than him' bit, you can't get any lower than white trash.

He chose to be ignorant, a lot of the rural girls do quite well given the chance of education.

 

Don't think I've ever met any other educated white guys in Thailand, they were all builders, painters, postmen.

No thinking back, 1 doctor who married a bar girl, she then stole 3 'investment' houses from him.

Never seen any white guys with educated and professional girls ...... all obvious hookers, although the guys would deny it.

Edited February 27, 2020 by BritManToo

[Boomer6969]

On 2/25/2020 at 3:23 PM, ravip said:

What an authentic description of life in Thailand!

I guess, millions of foreigners are coming to here to live "a dog's life".

 

I am sure, you did your in-depth research on Thai life and got out of the country pretty fast, never to sight it again?

????

Guess this sums it up..

[Thian]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Never seen any white guys with educated and professional girls ...... all obvious hookers, although the guys would deny it.

What a load of nonsense mate.

 

My wife is very well educated and has a very good job...Myself too and i also worked as a builder for years because it pays very well and enabled me to be in Thailand 8 months a year...i did that only a few years though but am proud i did. And nope i don't need no high horse to talk others down, i have plenty of cars/motorbikes to ride and houses to live in, all paid.

[unsubscribe]

isn't rent in bkk like ฿6,000/month for a small apt? I guess ฿10-15k would be ok then, especially with roomates

[luckyluke]

14 minutes ago, unsubscribe said:

isn't rent in bkk like ฿6,000/month for a small apt? I guess ฿10-15k would be ok then, especially with roomates

Nong Chok and Thonglor are both in Bangkok.

 

Rent prices however are rather different.

[ivor bigun]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I agree with you, apart from the 'girl even lower than him' bit, you can't get any lower than white trash.

He chose to be ignorant, a lot of the rural girls do quite well given the chance of education.

 

Don't think I've ever met any other educated white guys in Thailand, they were all builders, painters, postmen.

No thinking back, 1 doctor who married a bar girl, she then stole 3 'investment' houses from him.

Never seen any white guys with educated and professional girls ...... all obvious hookers, although the guys would deny it.

Well Britman ,shame we never met up ,when i was young i went to a public school ,never did a job that included manual labour ,and much of the time worked for myself ,my wifes family own condo blocks in Bangkok and live in rather nice homes there and up north ,the wife is educated and although she no longer works ,was in business,thats how i met her(no not the bar business????) our son now runs a company albeit not a very large one.

many of my friends also are not married to ex bar girls ,although one who is has been married to her for more than 30yrs is still going strong .always think my friend ,never generalize.

[BritManToo]

5 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

always think my friend ,never generalize.

Just saying about the people I've met, no generalisations in the post you quoted.

Maybe your education was a bit lacking in the English comprehension department.

[FritsSikkink]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2020 at 3:26 PM, BritManToo said:

High school graduate 9k/month, University graduate 14k/month

Street food seller = less, Member of Parliament = more.

 

Is the average salary in a town relevant to anything?

I was one of the highest paid guys in my field working in London, I couldn't make the average wage.

Mainly because the stockbrokers, day traders, bankers and other fat cats made millions.

https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Location=London-England%3A-London/Salary

 

Average pay now 36K a year.

[FritsSikkink]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2020 at 6:34 PM, cooked said:

<deleted> are you talking about? This is the way many many Thais live. I have been down to BK and Chonburi many times visiting family, bringing them rice and other stuff from the farm, and seen the way they live. Yes, I consider that to be 'in depth', I have even slept in these hutches, seen them come home after double shifts with no one at home to cook for them or keep things clean.

The fact that you haven't noticed is possibly beside the point. Or maybe you haven't noticed that there are other people than Farangs living here?

That your family is poor doesn't mean the average Thai is. The average salary in BKK is 25K, lot of people earn less, others way more. 

[FritsSikkink]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Don't think I've ever met any other educated white guys in Thailand, they were all builders, painters, postmen.

No thinking back, 1 doctor who married a bar girl, she then stole 3 'investment' houses from him.

Never seen any white guys with educated and professional girls ...... all obvious hookers, although the guys would deny it.

That is because you can't afford to live around where these people stay or drink where they drink.

[luckyluke]

In Thonglor several condo are rent by young Thai single male and female tenants who goes to work, some with their car.

Monthly rent start +/- 20000 Th.

 

[cooked]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:45 PM, Don Mega said:

minimum wage in Bangkok is about Bt.9200 a month.

Oh hah hah.

[cooked]

14 hours ago, Thian said:

Wow there's the expert....guess you've never seen the villaparks with one or more new big cars at the driveway? And what about all the stuff for sale in the malls? You thought that a person with 8k a month could afford that? Dream on dude.

And I guess you never went to one of the poorer areas of BK, not so far off the beaten tracks but seldom seen by tourists. Plenty of people in the malls, and nobody buying as far as I can see.