Thailand’s daily wage hike will not necessarily put more food on the table

[webfact]

 

Although the minimum daily wage will rise by an average of 5 percent from October 1, not many workers see a brighter future.

 

“The increase will not make my life better in any way,” said Pattama Ngarmpag, who works as a janitor. “I’m already getting more than the new minimum wage rate, but I’ve never been able to make ends meet.”

 

Pattama currently earns 360 baht per day, which is just above the 353-baht minimum rate set for workers in Bangkok. Yet, despite working five days a week from Monday to Friday, she earns less than 10,000 baht a month.

 

“I’ve tried looking for extra jobs but to no avail. There are far too many people scrambling for extra work out there,” she said.

 

Soaring inflation means her expenses are far higher than her income. She now owes nearly 50,000 baht to loan sharks and almost 10,000 baht to her landlord.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailands-daily-wage-hike-will-not-necessarily-put-more-food-on-the-table/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-09-19

 

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[arithai12]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“I’ve tried looking for extra jobs but to no avail. There are far too many people scrambling for extra work out there,” she said.

I think the lady nailed it. If she lived in Isaan, 10k would be  ok but she wouldn't easily find a job as unqualified worker. In Bangkok, 10k is not enough but there's many others ready to take the job if you pass so no incentive to increase the wage.

[StayinThailand2much]

Maybe not, but buying the latest smartphone will be easier. And the rest will be invested into lottery tickets...

Edited September 19, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[kingstonkid]

WOW

Consider that the newspaper article is about poverty and the fact that people can not afford to live and all the EINSTEINS care about is a picture showing how unsafe most people's lives are.

 

The point is that no matter what happens to raise the wages to a higher level is not going to help a lot of people.

 

The catch to it in a lot of cases is that once the minimum wage goes up stores increase their costs.  The challenge for most Thais is living day to day and not knowing how to do it.

 

Same with teachers Does anyone here think that if they got a raise that would solve their money problems?

No they would just spend more and stay in debt.

 

No one has shown them how to get out of debt.

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by kingstonkid

[Cake Monster]

Any pay increases that the workers were due to receive, have already been eaten away by the cost of Electric and Gas alone.

The allotted 5 % wage rise along with the 18 % rise in Electric and the huge rise in Cooking Gas, is going to see another large spike in Inflation, as all products from the Factory Gate will rise in price.

Thats everything from Cars to Vacuum Cleaners to all Food and Drink items.

Inflation was recently published to be at 7.6 %

If that is the true figure, then its going to rise by another 2-3 % minimum by the Year end, reaching double figures.

Exports will also take a huge nosedive in the near future due to the additional Manufacturing costs, and consumer  spending is also going to plummet.

With slow pickup in the Tourism Sector, there is not a very rosy picture to be painted at this moment in time for the Countries future going forward.

 

 

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed.  Although there is a photo of scaffolding in the OP, the topic is not about scaffolding or the cost of scaffolding, the topic is about:

 

Thailand’s daily wage hike will not necessarily put more food on the table

[BritManToo]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Yet, despite working five days a week from Monday to Friday, she earns less than 10,000 baht a month.

2 people living in the same place earning 10kbht/month each should be plenty.

Obviously if you want to live alone that would be hard.

[KhunLA]

11 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

2 people living in the same place earning 10kbht/month each should be plenty.

Obviously if you want to live alone that would be hard.

Yep... No different than when I was a youngin', and was best to share an apt/house with roommate/s. 

 

Same as it is today in USA till one moves up the ladder.

[worgeordie]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Yet, despite working five days a week from Monday to Friday,

She's lucky lots of people ,my daughter for example work 6 days a week,

even when I started work in the very distance past ,it was 5 and half days ,

now 4 -4.5 days seems to be the norm in the West. so here you are living

to work , not working for a living.

regards Worgeordie

 

[hotchilli]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Although the minimum daily wage will rise by an average of 5 percent from October 1, not many workers see a brighter future.

5% wage increase on about 350 baht doesn't even keep up with inflation, when you take into account all the monthly increases on everything.