Employers group against minimum wage hike, petitions the government

[webfact]

 

By Erich Parpart

 

The Employers’ Confederation of Thailand said on Friday that the government should find other ways to help low-income workers with rising living costs instead of abruptly hiking the minimum wage as requested by workers’ associations.

 

“If they do that then SMEs will not be able to cope and businesses will look for more foreign workers from neighbouring countries and that will make it even harder for Thai minimum wage workers to find jobs,” Taweekiat Rongsawat, Chairman of the Employers’ Confederation of Thailand told Thai Enquirer on the phone on Friday.

 

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“I cannot speak on behalves of the Ministry of Commerce in terms of what can be done to tackle inflation but there are temporary measures that the Ministry of Labour can introduce to help low-income workers who are suffering now and the confederation will propose some of them to the labour ministry in the near future,” he said.

 

Full story: https://www.thaienquirer.com/39823/employers-group-against-minimum-wage-hike-petitions-the-government/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Enquirer 2022-04-30

 

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[blazes]

No matter which country you reside in, you will always hear this kind of comment from employers' organizations, saying that businesses will have to close if the workers are granted an extra few cents (satang, pence etc) per hour.

 

But businesses seem to keep on thriving if the markets are favourable....Usually they will simply pass the extra cents (and THEN some) on to their customers.

[edwinchester]

If you can't pay your workers a decent living wage then you shouldn't be in business, end of.

 

[RichardColeman]

4 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

If you can't pay your workers a decent living wage then you shouldn't be in business, end of.

 

OK, but have you ever heard of a company demanding wage cuts when inflation is negative ? Or workers agreeing to it ? No, me neither. 

[zzaa09]

8 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

If you can't pay your workers a decent living wage then you shouldn't be in business, end of.

 

Such an ethical acts should be in place the world over. 

Unfortunately, this is not how it is anywhere.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The Employers’ Confederation of Thailand said on Friday that the government should find other ways to help low-income workers with rising living costs instead of abruptly hiking the minimum wage as requested by workers’ associations.

Expected.

[VincentRJ]

There are certain very basic principles about the economy which many people do not seem to understand. The success and prosperity of any economy is mainly dependent on two basic factors. 
(1) The cost of energy. 
(2) The way we use that energy.

 

Because every activity in a modern economy is dependent on supplies of energy, if energy prices increase, then the standard of living must fall, unless the energy is used more efficiently in order to compensate for that increased cost.

 

If any business increase the wages of its employees whilst energy prices are rising, then it must use that energy more efficiently in order to maintain profits. If profits fall, then the company's share value falls, shareholders become less wealthy, and if the company has huge debts to repay, it might become bankrupt, which means all employees lose their job.

 

We have a similar problem in Australia with the coming elections. Wages have remained constant for many years. However,  inflation and rising house prices are a major concern, and many people are demanding wage rises. These people don't seem to understand that wage levels are a major part of the cost of production. If wage levels rise without a corresponding increase in efficiency, then either inflation will rise and goods will become more expensive, or government debt must rise in order to subsidise the increased business costs.

[edwinchester]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

OK, but have you ever heard of a company demanding wage cuts when inflation is negative ? Or workers agreeing to it ? No, me neither. 

In the last 20 years the inflation rate in Thailand has only been negative in 3 of them and even then it  less than -1%.

[Sydebolle]

I believe that I read 490 Baht/day as a proposal by the government (which does not pay the private sector's salaries anyhow). 

Yingluck floated that populistic idea of increasing from 200 Baht/day to 300 Baht/day while university graduates would get guaranteed 15,000 Baht/month. Not every company adhered to the change but it brought Yingluck to power. The university students were well advised not to insist on the 15,000 Baht/month as they had zero experience and no proven record of anything. 

If that new increase proposal goes through, the minimum would read 2.5 times what it was ten years ago. My question are:

• does the average worker's output produce 2.5 times the output of ten years ago? 
• what does this mean in absolute terms of inflation over the last ten years? 
• did the end consumer prices absorb this increase in their products and/or services? 
• is the average employee today better off than ten years ago? 

I still believe that such Thais do not live, they exist merely which accounts for the lack of dedication, interest and motivation at work ..... but yes, it is a populistic approach, which worked just fine by former politicians in their election race ???? 

[kimamey]

15 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

OK, but have you ever heard of a company demanding wage cuts when inflation is negative ? Or workers agreeing to it ? No, me neither. 

You won't usually see the CEO or any of the other top executives accepting less pay whatever the circumstances either. 

[kimamey]

The issue of cheaper foreign workers being brought in if the minimum wage increases can be stopped by being less racist and nationalistic and applying the minimum wage to all workers. 

[BangkokReady]

For an apparently oppressive and evil government, a lot of people demand subsidisation from them whenever there is a price increase... ????

[Pouatchee]

On 4/30/2022 at 2:14 AM, webfact said:

the confederation will propose some of them to the labour ministry in the near future,” he said.

They have no idea...  clueless they are, just trying to buy time.

 

[xtrnuno41]

It is always the problem with the employers, they ONLY must have more and others as less as possible. Of course stockholders, if there are, are the other part to have every time more and more money. However always the working section has to increase in money.

As i just red this week, the ceo of KLM/Air France gets 900000 euro/year basic salary. Upon that he has bonuses worth 3.4 million euro.

In this time we have a mess on the airport, due to lack of working people, which "earn" a whopping 11 euro/hour.

It can even get more worse.

In Africa, there are KIDS, working to survive. Heavy duty working, carrying bags of 20 kg, 12 hours/day for just 80 cents.

So there we showed the difference. And thats in every country with every employer. 

The Thai employers threatened to employ more foreign workers. I still wonder how this can be done, as Thailand forbids foreigners to work in Thailand, if Thai can do. So im flabbergasted so many Myanmar and others can work in Thailand.

All most any job a foreigner cant do. However it happens in Thailand, unless you are a farang.