Former PM Thaksin slams modest minimum wage hike of 5%, calls for ฿800 a day rate over 2 terms

[steven100]

47 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

Robots are much more reliable than people

and they turn up for work every day of the year

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s former Premier has slammed a 5% increase in the minimum wage for Thai workers as ‘sad’ and called for a Pheu Thai-led government to steer the economy towards a minimum wage of ฿800 per day over two terms in government

Still trying to buy votes... promise everything then forget everything.

[KIngsofisaan]

38 minutes ago, lordblackader said:

See the results from the last election - his base is slowly dwindling. The North and Isan used to be uninterrupted red and slowly that is changing. Where do you think Anutin is getting votes from? 

Not from Isaan. You are confused.

[herfiehandbag]

8 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

Unfortunately, most people only care about the money in their pocket that day.  "Thaksin gave us money so we like him."  I doubt many cared about what he actually did to the country or the economy.

Many people, including much of Mr Thaksin's power base, live if not from day to day then certainly from week to week. There is nothing to save, to invest, to provide for the future. No hope really of ever doing so, or improving their lot.

 

Of course they listen to him. When he was in power he introduced measures which materially improved their standard of living. Then they look at what this present bunch have achieved since they took (literally) power.

 

[BangkokReady]

31 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

Many people, including much of Mr Thaksin's power base, live if not from day to day then certainly from week to week.

Of course, that's why his vote buying++ has been so successful. 

 

The point is, they don't see that it is better to have 300B a day for ten years, than 500B a day for two years, then 200B a day for eight years.  They don't look at what happens to the economy or what is likely to happen.  This, I'm sure you will agree, would be a problem for them, at least after that initial two years.

 

They're still free to think what they like and vote for whomever they wish, but we are also free to point out that that things always get worse for them in the long run when the vote buying money dries up.

 

It's an easy enough concept to understand, that you can pay poor and uneducated people to vote for you and then use the country as your personal business while they take zero interest in what you are actually doing, but it isn't necessarily a good thing, nor something that should be encouraged.

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

and they turn up for work every day of the year

They can be temperamental though.

 

But yeah, they dont get sick... they don't catch covid.... they dont fall pregnant....they dont fall off their scooter on the way to work.... they are not members of a Union that has unrealistic workplace and employment requests forcing the company into labour court every year negotiating EBA's.

 

Etc Etc Etc.

[Sparktrader]

If he has $2bn us why doesnt he give 80% to poor people?

 

 

A small business cannot pay 800 bht a day if profits only cover 600 bht a day.

 

 

[steven100]

he's blowing his trumpet as usual,     why don't you step up Thaksin and send over a few billion baht to distribute ........  Nah  '    I didn't think so.  

[trainman34014]

5 hours ago, 2baht said:

Banks are a prime example, there was a time when people robbed banks, now, banks rob people! 

A lot of people still rob Banks in Thailand but mainly it's the Staff doing the robbing of both the Bank and plundering Customer's Accounts !   Apart from the last bit i'm happy if anyone robs them as they are the worst Banks for Customer Service on the entire Planet !

[Burma Bill]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

called for a Pheu Thai-led government to steer the economy towards a minimum wage of ฿800 per day

Great news - keep at it Mister "T' like days of old!!

[Bert got kinky]

9 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

800 a day would force us to lay of a lot of staff.

 

Not a problem, fill the places with more cheap import labour.

Samutprakarn Immigration are already kept busy processing work permits for Myanmar passports, so a few more won't matter.

 

 

[billd766]

10 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

800 a day would force us to lay of a lot of staff.

But if  you read the story it will be over an 8 year period and not all on day 1.

[Photoguy21]

8 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

An out of touch man, yakking and spouting more nonsense. No doubt it is difficult for many Thais to survive on 300-400 baht a day. But, doubling that sounds unrealistic. Likely just pandering to his base, which is likely dwindling after all these years. 

A reasonable living wage is needed though. I doubt if anyone can disagree with that and believe it

[HappyExpat57]

6 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Doubling the min wage would force all manufacturing businesses to dramatically increase their costs in turn making Thailand an unattractive place to manufacture.

 

Are the robber barons really that stupid ?

 

Don't bite the hand that feeds you comes to mind !!

The price rise would be negligent, particularly if the robber barons would loosen their grip on their gold just a little bit. This has been shown time and time again. I would gladly pay an extra 15 baht for a pizza if it meant that all the staff were making a living wage.

[hotandsticky]

10 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

The price rise would be negligent, particularly if the robber barons would loosen their grip on their gold just a little bit. This has been shown time and time again. I would gladly pay an extra 15 baht for a pizza if it meant that all the staff were making a living wage.

Jesus! You will be advocating an increase in bar fines next!

 

 

If you want to improve their lot, give them a 15 Baht tip.

[khunPer]

Sounds like khun Thaksin is into vote buying, which might boost inflation. Last time they did a huge increase in minimum wage - from 200 baht to 300 baht per day - people complained that after the increase prices had gone up and they could not buy more, rather little less for their money.

 

The article mentions a lot about recovering of the tourist industry. Many Myanmar-people are preferred in the tourist areas, both because of their little better English skills, and also because it's difficult to find workers domestically. It's often stated that Thailand is short of work force and dependent of migrant workers, the number 3 million have been mentioned. Would be nive to know how many of the workers in the tourists business are Thais and how many migrant workers..?

 

The wage would increase naturally when the amount of work force is low, it might be a better way to adjust the minimum wage based on a combination of the market's demand and consumer price index, the latter is in total up around 12 percent over a 10-year period.; however, about 7 percent up in short term like one year...

 

 

It's about 10-years ago the minimum wage was raised to 300 baht, from October this year it will be 355 baht, i.e. in total 18 percent increase from the 300-baht level. However, minimum wage was was around four years ago also changed to reflect current skill standards in the range from 345 baht to 858 baht per day (source: The Nation Thailand)...????

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, Bert got kinky said:

 

Not a problem, fill the places with more cheap import labour.

Samutprakarn Immigration are already kept busy processing work permits for Myanmar passports, so a few more won't matter.

 

 

30% of our workforce would be import labour hired through a labour hire company.

Rarely does one person stay for more than a week resulting in a revolving door training process.

 

Replace with robots is the way forward.

[Red Forever]

With a few exceptions the expert economists on here seem to think that Thaksin is proposing an immediate rise in the minimum wage. It's clear that his proposal is to phase this in over 8 years. This is doable.

I remember in UK Blair's proposal for a minimum wage was met with howls of derision from the negative right wing mob. Today, despite employers having to pay a fair wage the UK enjoys full employment.

Go figure.

[DezLez]

27 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

30% of our workforce would be import labour hired through a labour hire company.

Rarely does one person stay for more than a week resulting in a revolving door training process.

 

Replace with robots is the way forward.

It they only stay one week then you are you acting as a "backdoor" immigration smuggler!

I suggest you change you labour supplier!

[Ralf001]

2 minutes ago, DezLez said:

It they only stay one week then you are you acting as a "backdoor" immigration smuggler!

I suggest you change you labour supplier!

I suggest we <deleted> off all  that can be replaced by a machine.

[madmitch]

The minimum wage should increase but this in turn would force prices to rise and the rate of inflation to accelerate, which would affect the elderly on their almost non-existent pensions and those who work outside of the social security system and are often paid below the minimum wage.

 

Difficult one to balance. 

[OneMoreFarang]

Why are those fantasy stories from a wanted criminal printed here?

He promised Thailand at least 100 times that he has nothing to do with politics anymore.

And it seems all PT politicians insist that they are independent from the owner of that party.

Just ignore him!

Maybe write some articles about why he is wanted and all the court cases against him. And about all the misery which happened because of him and his greed.

He should shut up and die in the desert and Thailand should forget him and his corrupt family.

[scorecard]

11 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why are those fantasy stories from a wanted criminal printed here?

He promised Thailand at least 100 times that he has nothing to do with politics anymore.

And it seems all PT politicians insist that they are independent from the owner of that party.

Just ignore him!

Maybe write some articles about why he is wanted and all the court cases against him. And about all the misery which happened because of him and his greed.

He should shut up and die in the desert and Thailand should forget him and his corrupt family.

And, just wondering if his 800Baht a day idea is nothing more than vote buying?

[HappyExpat57]

4 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

Jesus! You will be advocating an increase in bar fines next!

 

 

If you want to improve their lot, give them a 15 Baht tip.

Says every cheap Charlie robber baron or baron wannabe.

[billd766]

9 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Still trying to buy votes... promise everything then forget everything.

At least when he came to power he didn't completely forget his supporters, which is probably why he was elected to a second time with an overall majority in parliament.

 

What has ANY military government, especially this one, ever given to the people of Thailand?

[billd766]

7 hours ago, Sparktrader said:

If he has $2bn us why doesnt he give 80% to poor people?

 

 

A small business cannot pay 800 bht a day if profits only cover 600 bht a day.

 

 

Very true. Could that be why he suggesting that it be phased in over an 8 year period?

[billd766]

7 hours ago, steven100 said:

he's blowing his trumpet as usual,     why don't you step up Thaksin and send over a few billion baht to distribute ........  Nah  '    I didn't think so.  

Why don't ALL the big owners here in Thailand give a few billion of their own money to distribute?

[billd766]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

And, just wondering if his 800Baht a day idea is nothing more than vote buying?

What has the current government and employers offered, other than another 8 years like the last 8 years.

 

Twice the square root of FA? The loss of another 2 million jobs? Another 8 years of bringing happiness and reconciliation to the Thai people the military way?

 

I can remember back to the Thaksin era. There were a lots of jobs available, there was a lot more money around and Thais were a lot happier.

 

Compare it with nowadays.

[steven100]

17 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Why don't ALL the big owners here in Thailand give a few billion of their own money to distribute?

I agree bill ....  no argument from me ...i'm a peaceful guy,  on my 6th bottle of Chang but i'm not thinking about the dead too much, just some times.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by steven100

[HappyExpat57]

31 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Why don't ALL the big owners here in Thailand give a few billion of their own money to distribute?

It doesn't have to be that extreme. Instead of sucking up, say, 10 billion baht in a year's profit, just take 9 billion and pay their workers that 800 baht/day.

Plato said a CEO to worker pay ratio should be around 5:1. Currently it's astronomically FAR away from this. 

 

Amazon: 6,474-to-1. ...

Expedia: 2,897-to-1. ...

McDonald's: 2,251-to-1. ...

 

[source: https://www.businessinsider.com/these-20-companies-have-biggest-ceo-to-worker-pay-ratios-2022-7]

 

What we should do, as fellow humans, is customize a compensation structure that is fair and reasonable, based on market research and data, and that is tied to performance to effectively motivate and retain skilled leaders.

 

Instead we have modern day robber barons.