Are Expat salaries likely to rise in Thailand?

[PB172111]

1 hour ago, rickudon said:

The average wage in Thailand is about 14,000 baht per month. Obviously western expats are not going to work for that, but good luck in finding a well paid job, not easy.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/wages

Plenty on offer way above this amount. Lots of expats over here working in the offshore/oil & gas sector etc plus registered business owners.

[NorthernRyland]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

But the country’s average salary varies, depending on several factors.

Ok this author is a clown. Averages don't vary, that's the point of averages, to smooth out any variance! The average is a literally a single number which is derived from all the other numbers, making it impossible to vary.

[Troy Tempest]

22 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

No ploplem.
I am se best inglish spiker weit and breit.

Was???? 

 

[spidermike007]

Seems to be poor information. First of all, who lives on 30,000 baht a month in Bangkok? Maybe if you found a slum in Klong Toey, you could pull it off. Maybe. You would have to count every baht, every month. Not much fun.

 

Second, the salaries stated seem quite high. Perhaps they are somehow counting all the Japanese management in this formula? Most ex-pats do not have access to those kinds of jobs, which no doubt are held primarily by Japanese nationals. I know many who teach english here, and most make 30,000 a month, or less. 

 

And then this: Most companies in Thailand do offer great amount of salary to foreigners, but most won't go above 200k.

How many jobs in Thailand pay 200K a month, to a foreigner, if you remove Japanese nationals in upper management working here?

 

 

[Hanuman2547]

This article is pure <deleted>!  There's a huge difference in salary of overseas posted senior management level expats and a backpacker turned ESL teacher. 

[Whale]

9 minutes ago, Hanuman2547 said:

This article is pure <deleted>!  There's a huge difference in salary of overseas posted senior management level expats and a backpacker turned ESL teacher. 

I was just going to say the same. The word "expat" seems to have a different meaning to many people.

[Whale]

10 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

First of all, who lives on 30,000 baht a month in Bangkok?

Not me thats for sure! 

[flyfrog]

The problem is we're willing to pay a good salary but the Thais don't want to work, almost impossible to find decent staff these days????

And the labour department dont make it easy also to hire a foreigner with changing the law every other week

Edited May 4, 2022 by flyfrog

[DJ54]

Expat packages have diminished over the years.... a lot of extras like paid school for expat children ,housing .. transportation 

[Ralf001]

22 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

And then this: Most companies in Thailand do offer great amount of salary to foreigners, but most won't go above 200k.

How many jobs in Thailand pay 200K a month, to a foreigner, if you remove Japanese nationals in upper management working here?

 

 

I know a few non Japanese working in middle management earning 200k+

 

Bt. 200,000 a month is just shy of 70k USD a year.... nice salary but not huge by any stretch.

[Scott]

Off-topic post reported and removed.

 

[TropicalGuy]

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Just one of the sentences which disqualifies this writer.

I thought this was supposed to be an expert website for expats in Thailand.

No such person as “ average” really. Paying Rent or Not, Driving Car or Not, Insured or Not, Disabled / Sick or Not, Western or Local Food & Clothing ; all have Huge Impacts on Monthly Budget and Capital Spend Profile. Same with English Teacher vs. Corporate Exec. status. 

[RafPinto]

31 minutes ago, Whale said:

Not me thats for sure! 

So, You are not one of the foreigners living not far from me, renting a "room" for 4000Baht? 555

 

I think a few manage to get easy by, with 30k

4000 rent, just fan, cheap food...

[RafPinto]

I never understood why companies hire "expensive" expats.
Yes, probably better skills and education but:

High salary

Package to move here

Rent paid

School fees paid

Car, driver

Maid...

A friend of mine got his rent paid: 170k a month plus a maid plus a car with driver plus 800k school fees plus a huge salary.

This company must make a fortune, just to afford this one person.

[jaideedave]

2 hours ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

Thailand has a salary range for Expats of 24,500 THB (US$734) to 433,000 THB (US$12984) in a month. Its average monthly salary is 96,900 THB (US$2,904). 

96,900 THB is the average for Expats.   Which seems low to me. 

That's less than 100$/day. I don't know any expats that would work for that except a teacher.. When I worked in O&G the entry level was about 200$ /day. Chevron paid me 750$/day back in the day. I think most of those jobs dried up now. I know several expats here in TL who worked out of Thailand mostly in the middle east..myself included.The good old days.

[NorthernRyland]

21 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

I never understood why companies hire "expensive" expats.

...
This company must make a fortune, just to afford this one person.

Seriously? Because they can't find the right person who actually lives in Thailand!

[RafPinto]

2 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

Seriously? Because they can't find the right person who actually lives in Thailand!

I am not against hiring more qualified expats but it was me hiring:

Younger staff, no kids etc.

Another friend brought with him 4 children, that is 4X800k just for schooling.

[NorthernRyland]

12 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

Another friend brought with him 4 children, that is 4X800k just for schooling.

I agree it's crazy but the that must be how hopeless the native labor force is, or it's a such a highly specialized position that no country has a surplus of these people.

[Elkski]

I didn't enjoy this article.   It was poor use of English and he jumped all over the place.   If using monthly and annual numbers with such a big range I think it's important to specify xxx$/mo or  yyy$/ yr 

[Alex80]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Seems to be poor information. First of all, who lives on 30,000 baht a month in Bangkok? Maybe if you found a slum in Klong Toey, you could pull it off. Maybe. You would have to count every baht, every month. Not much fun.

Actually I live in a comfy condo in Phra Khanong and I don't spend much more than 30.000, without giving up anything, and I have 100k+/month net salary. So don't assume, not all lifestyles are the same

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, Whale said:

There must be less and less sectors that need to hire non-Thais these days compared to the past. 

 

The sector I worked in is all Thai these days and is doing very well.

Agree.

[Bernietravelling]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

…

Second, the salaries stated seem quite high. Perhaps they are somehow counting all the Japanese management in this formula? Most ex-pats do not have access to those kinds of jobs, which no doubt are held primarily by Japanese nationals. I know many who teach english here, and most make 30,000 a month, or less. 

 

And then this: Most companies in Thailand do offer great amount of salary to foreigners, but most won't go above 200k.

How many jobs in Thailand pay 200K a month, to a foreigner, if you remove Japanese nationals in upper management working here?

 

 

Actually, I would consider 200k quite low.

 

The problem lies in the author’s unclear definition of „expat“.

Whereas here in the forum, a lot of people here in the forum consider everybody from abroad (working or not) an expat, in HR terms an expat is normally someone sent or (sometimes) hired from abroad by a company with an expat renumeration package. 

The other foreigners are considered to be working on „local contract“ and differentiated from the expats.

 

To a great extend the author seems to refer to the first category, which can be seen from his description of Cost-of-Living difference, relative hardship and exchange rate.

 

Anyway … as stated already by others,  this is a very weak analysis with close to zero background, as we can see from statements like „Online statistics state the average annual salary…“ …

And then he refers to NAVIGOS Search, which is a HR service company based on Hanoi, focusing on Vietnam …

 

It seems, that author is just paid by number of words written, not for having deeper insight and informing readers.

- Clickbait, because it will for sure lead to a lot of discussions 555

 

[GarryP]

21 minutes ago, Alex80 said:

Actually I live in a comfy condo in Phra Khanong and I don't spend much more than 30.000, without giving up anything, and I have 100k+/month net salary. So don't assume, not all lifestyles are the same

The comparison is way out of balance.  You have pointed out you are earning 100k+/month so you are not living on 30K. You are living on 100+k but only spending 30k. The rest I assume is being saved for your future. Could you live on earnings of 30k/month and cover all your expenses, including saving for the future? What about those who are in their 30's or 40's paying for their kids education, paying off their car and mortgage, etc? They cannot live on earnings of 30k a month. They would need to be earning more so they could pay off those things and save for their future.  

[John Drake]

24 minutes ago, Bernietravelling said:

HR terms an expat is normally someone sent or (sometimes) hired from abroad by a company with an expat renumeration package. 

I don't think Hemingway, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Dean Howells, or dozens of others needed verification from HR to be considered expats. In fact, I would say you have it backwards, an expat is someone who goes to live abroad, away from his own country, not some corporate nomad who will put in a couple of years and then go back.

[whiteman]

First of all, who lives on 30,000 baht a month in Bangkok? Maybe if you found a slum in Klong Toey, you could pull it off. Maybe. You would have to count every baht, every month. Not much fun.

 

Seems you know many of theses slum dwellers ????

 

[Thunglom]

Should be noted that English Language teachers who probably represent the highest number of any group of expat employees, are outside any of these government calculations as regards country of origin.

Teachers salaries haven't changed in baht for over 20 years.

 

It is typical of the Thai military-based authorities that over the years, they have tried to dictate the salaries of foreign workers. By ignoring market values they inevitably miss out on employing the best managers, engineers etc and restrict themselves to a niche market... rather than a meritocracy.

[StayinThailand2much]

11 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

12 hours ago, webfact said:

Average Bangkokians live comfortably with 30,000THB per month,

Expand  

Just one of the sentences which disqualifies this writer.

I thought this was supposed to be an expert website for expats in Thailand.

True. While the 'average Bangkokian' might "live comfortably" on that kind of money (while, perhaps, having a household debt of 95%), the same cannot be said of the average expat in Thailand, unless, maybe, living in a straw-hut on the beach, living off rice and self-caught fish...

 

I cannot live on 30,000 baht 'comfortably' for an extended time, not to mention what happens if one gets sick or into an accident. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[jacko45k]

5 hours ago, Chaichara said:

And expat customers complain about the still low prices for pools, maintenance, and repairs by pool companies which for reasons of quality, professionalism, and knowledge of languages, employ expat staff. Such clients seem to want their cake and eat it. 

The company I use has no farang staff I am aware of....... and one does need to keep an eye on the guys who may do maintenance or repair, they often dump  a number of Cambodians, the Thai supervisor will be off elsewhere. These workers are great at creating damage and breaking things. The guys who come to do my pool servicing... are okay, Cambodian, but it is hardly rocket science. I do the dosing myself... they like to waste chemicals, good profit margins on them. Told me to replace sand in my filter after every 1 year, not necessary! Parts are expensive, all imported except pipe. 

Maybe you have varying experience, 

 

 

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, Alex80 said:

Actually I live in a comfy condo in Phra Khanong and I don't spend much more than 30.000, without giving up anything, and I have 100k+/month net salary. So don't assume, not all lifestyles are the same

How true. Just one example of re living on 30,000Baht a month:

 

- Paying rent on a decent 1 bed (maybe 2 bed) condo. For something decent at least 15,000Baht a month. possibly more.

 

- Own the condo, no rent, just monthly building maintenace fees, low maybe 2,000 a month - high 8,000 a month. Case by case.

 

Very different. 

[NeoDinosaw]

8 hours ago, Troy Tempest said:

Deal Breaker!.....For that job you need to be fluent in French, German and Italian as well!

why.  The best way to teach a language is to do it ALL n the language being taught (not the Thai way ?)