What Is The Average Thai Wage ? And Could You Survive ?

[apetley]

I am currently having a house built in Thailand.

I was a little shocked that the labourers earn an average of between 170 and 250 Bht per day.

The ladies earn 170 of course, even though they work as hard as the guys and get them breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sex discrimination is alive and well in Thailand.

The guys earn 200 Bht per day and the foreman gets 250.

Our builder tells us that these are the going rates in Kanchanaburi.

I think I could live on the Thai average wage if I had to, I am just very grateful that I do not have to.

[mattias33]

My neighbour (thai) has a brand new car and bought his house (2 mill baht) go to trips on monthly basis with his family. He is a bit educated and work as a manager for a hotel. His salery:16500/month.

A policefriend of mine in Bangkok (some kind of divisioncheif) has a salery of 18 000 and also seem to live a halfway lyxury life on this money. Drives a Toyota fortuner and come to Samui 3-4 times a year with the family and stay in highclass hotels.

I´ve had good conversations with these two high-income thais and asked them how its possible to drive new cars and live "lavida loca" on so little money? Both of them claim that a thai with this salery easy credit 100% of a car on many years payback. Banks give them loans for good houses, also with no deposit at all and on long time. I dont know the truth in this but surely you see thai working people that live like they are very rich. I never saw a thai that make 50k/month though and even on that money i would´nt feel rich. General Thai workers (7k/month) always say the are poor and live the poor mans life. Cheap rooms, eat for free at work and so on. But the "high-class" educated Thais, who infact mot of the time only make 15-20k drive nice cars and have big villas. Strange fact but from my knowledge the banks borrow them money easier. Thats the explanation i´ve got from many friends.

What many Thais dont seem to understand is that loans sometimes is supposed to be paid back, and thats the said thing about it.

[churchill]

My neighbour (thai) has a brand new car and bought his house (2 mill baht) go to trips on monthly basis with his family. He is a bit educated and work as a manager for a hotel. His salery:16500/month.

A policefriend of mine in Bangkok (some kind of divisioncheif) has a salery of 18 000 and also seem to live a halfway lyxury life on this money. Drives a Toyota fortuner and come to Samui 3-4 times a year with the family and stay in highclass hotels.

I´ve had good conversations with these two high-income thais and asked them how its possible to drive new cars and live "lavida loca" on so little money? Both of them claim that a thai with this salery easy credit 100% of a car on many years payback. Banks give them loans for good houses, also with no deposit at all and on long time. I dont know the truth in this but surely you see thai working people that live like they are very rich. I never saw a thai that make 50k/month though and even on that money i would´nt feel rich. General Thai workers (7k/month) always say the are poor and live the poor mans life. Cheap rooms, eat for free at work and so on. But the "high-class" educated Thais, who infact mot of the time only make 15-20k drive nice cars and have big villas. Strange fact but from my knowledge the banks borrow them money easier. Thats the explanation i´ve got from many friends.

What many Thais dont seem to understand is that loans sometimes is supposed to be paid back, and thats the said thing about it.

Sounds like a subprime crisis waitng to happen in Thailand

[smartecosse]

its called living in debt

[Cuban]

My wife says leave things as they are, this is Thailand.

This is 200% the right thing to do. Do not increase salaries because you think you should do the "right" thing. You will already know people perform better when they have a better job title than just money.

Thai staff respond better to a nice working enviroment than simply cash, if the staff treat you with respect and work as well for you as the last boss then show that you value them by talking to them, and maybe organise a working lunch. Don't feel you need to invite their families for a meal, they may prefer to keep work and family apart for whatever reasons.

Give bonuses based on performance, but best of all tell your staff when they do good things, they like praise and acknowledgment. Good staff are hard to come by, I just interviewed a no hoper for a position here, so when you want to change the way things have been done before tread slowly and listen to what your staff say (...and don't say). I wanted to move the buddha and king icons from day one, took me a month of gentle work but did what I wanted without upsetting anyone.

Buying respect of the loyalty of staff does not work. And understand them before you give raises across the board, you need to see who does the work first.

As for Thai salaries, compare the skills required with working hours and pressure. You see why farmers can sit around for many days doing little as their work requires few real skills and there are many people to do them. Where are a Thai broker does quite well.

[ashacat]

But the "high-class" educated Thais, who infact mot of the time only make 15-20k

This figure is wildly inaccurate. I have many Thai friends who are in no way "top income" earners, rather, fairly well educated young Thais with English abilities who earn more than you are saying. My girlfriend makes double what you are quoting, again, middle class Thai. "High-class" Thais earn far far more than you think my friend. Just look in the Bangkok Post, most decent jobs are in the range 50-90k month. Of course, Thais who own there own businesses can earn much much more...

As for your police example, it is well known that there are alternative means for police to supliment their income over and above their quoted salary. Not saying your friend does this, simply that it happens.

Edited January 26, 2008 by ashacat

[Jandajoy]

Interesting....

To add to the info, my wife worked, ar her insistance at a hotel near Rayong as a masseur. She spent 4 years qualifying, unlike all the other girls there. They're all paid the same, however, i.e 300 per hour BUT 60 % goes to the hotel. The girls get coupons which the hotel exchanges every two weeks. If they turn up 2 minutes late they are "fined" and continue to be fined by the minute. If they want to take a day off they get 500 per day deducted. With negotiation we got it down to to 200 per day but only 'cos I threw in my satangs worth. The boss has now quit! But God is she boored. Can't wait to head up north and get stuck into the garden.

Over all the average take home for the women working is around 1000 a week if they put in a 12 hour day, 7 days a week with no deductions.

Secondly, a friends son (19) is working 12 hours shifts at the, soon to be opened, Lotus for 200 a session. He's allowed 2 x 15 minute breaks per session. His mum takes him food. He's now being asked to work 24 hour sessions, with 6 hours off in between, as they're behing schedule for the grand opening.

happy days ?

Edited January 26, 2008 by Jandajoy

[Jingthing]

Over all the average take home for the women working is around 1000 a month

Did you mean 10,000 a month?

[Jandajoy]

Nope, 1,000 a week. That's assuming the hotel has customers. No people no work and the women just sit and wait. Two years ago I tod the Boss it was crazy work and she should quit. She stopped working for 3 days but got boored so went bank. A new manager has changed the rules and now it's just slave labour. I grant you that there are a few women who are supplementing their income by providing services over and above that required but there are more who don't.

It's not a good set up for any of them. The Boss is now teaching massage privately and she's making twice as much for half the work, and no sitting around.

Cheers

[vrsushi]

Nope, 1,000 a week. That's assuming the hotel has customers. No people no work and the women just sit and wait. Two years ago I tod the Boss it was crazy work and she should quit. She stopped working for 3 days but got boored so went bank. A new manager has changed the rules and now it's just slave labour. I grant you that there are a few women who are supplementing their income by providing services over and above that required but there are more who don't.

It's not a good set up for any of them. The Boss is now teaching massage privately and she's making twice as much for half the work, and no sitting around.

Cheers

You don't mind your wife putting her hands all over another guy? In a place where other women are providing "extras"?

I thought I was the non jealous, modern man type, but compared to you I'm back in the stone ages.

[Jandajoy]

Nope, 1,000 a week. That's assuming the hotel has customers. No people no work and the women just sit and wait. Two years ago I tod the Boss it was crazy work and she should quit. She stopped working for 3 days but got boored so went bank. A new manager has changed the rules and now it's just slave labour. I grant you that there are a few women who are supplementing their income by providing services over and above that required but there are more who don't.

It's not a good set up for any of them. The Boss is now teaching massage privately and she's making twice as much for half the work, and no sitting around.

Cheers

You don't mind your wife putting her hands all over another guy? In a place where other women are providing "extras"?

I thought I was the non jealous, modern man type, but compared to you I'm back in the stone ages.

It took a bit of getting used to initially but "no" I'm not bothered. A few discrete checks and a bit of trust -I think they call that an oxymoron -and I'm ok with it. I know a number of people in Aus and the UK who work as masseurs and for some it's a good job. Incidentally most of her regular customers are female.

Thanks for the compliment though.

pip pip

[mattias33]

But the "high-class" educated Thais, who infact mot of the time only make 15-20k

This figure is wildly inaccurate. I have many Thai friends who are in no way "top income" earners, rather, fairly well educated young Thais with English abilities who earn more than you are saying. My girlfriend makes double what you are quoting, again, middle class Thai. "High-class" Thais earn far far more than you think my friend. Just look in the Bangkok Post, most decent jobs are in the range 50-90k month. Of course, Thais who own there own businesses can earn much much more...

As for your police example, it is well known that there are alternative means for police to supliment their income over and above their quoted salary. Not saying your friend does this, simply that it happens.

The figure is not in any way inaccurate since it is based on conversation with Thais. And you saying you have many friend that not are top income earners in any way but they make more than 20k. How do you mean? I this thread a poster have already proved that the average income in Thailand is 7000/month. I think that people that have a salary 200% over average can call themselves top income, but thats my way of looking at it.

I agree there are some well paid jobs, but for a thai to make 50-90k is not easy. Even with good education. At least i never met a Thai with that kind of salary. At least not with 90k. But i beleive it may exist but it can not be that common. And dont forget that alot of companies promise alot in the ad, but once you are on the interview the negosiation starts, this is quite common from what i hear. That you see alot of ads in Bangkok post is not as relevant as speaking to Thais themselves. Anyway, the avarage is 7000, i think minimum wage for a Thai is 5000 if i remember correctly. So to make the average 7k there cant really be that many that make 50-90k/month. Sure you can know 2-3 Thais that make that money but it is not very common, if it was the average would go up.

[GuestHouse]

the gap between low class, medium class and hi so's is massive, so i think a average wage for each class would be better.

The language of Socioeconomics re-written.

[sgunn65]

My wife says leave things as they are, this is Thailand.

This is 200% the right thing to do. Do not increase salaries because you think you should do the "right" thing. You will already know people perform better when they have a better job title than just money.

Thai staff respond better to a nice working enviroment than simply cash, if the staff treat you with respect and work as well for you as the last boss then show that you value them by talking to them, and maybe organise a working lunch. Don't feel you need to invite their families for a meal, they may prefer to keep work and family apart for whatever reasons.

Give bonuses based on performance, but best of all tell your staff when they do good things, they like praise and acknowledgment. Good staff are hard to come by, I just interviewed a no hoper for a position here, so when you want to change the way things have been done before tread slowly and listen to what your staff say (...and don't say). I wanted to move the buddha and king icons from day one, took me a month of gentle work but did what I wanted without upsetting anyone.

Buying respect of the loyalty of staff does not work. And understand them before you give raises across the board, you need to see who does the work first.

As for Thai salaries, compare the skills required with working hours and pressure. You see why farmers can sit around for many days doing little as their work requires few real skills and there are many people to do them. Where are a Thai broker does quite well.

Thanks Cuban

Thats about as good advice I am likely to get anywhere and I will do exactly as you suggest.

Thats what I love about this forum, in between all the rubbish you can get really good advice. And this is not the first time I have benefited. I saved £800 not using a visa service by following the advice i got here.

[Heng]

Another thing that folks often fail to calculate (when they google their wikipedia and CIA fact book info) is that assets here tend to get passed down and accumulate over the generations (for many, but of course not most) instead of being dispersed. So someone might have a 9,000 Baht a month job but have 2-20X that coming in per month in rental income. To the casual obersver ignorant of this, the conclusion is usually something along the lines of: living on credit, secretly selling @ss on the side, or apparently running some kind of front operation for a criminal enterprise.

[Dakhar]

Work at a family owned co. We have over 100 employees. Most have a BS degree, and they earn about 7K a month, with incentives that usually total to 8-10 a month at the most. Some of the staff have been with us for many years and they earn 15-20K. But that is around .05% of the staff that earn that type of money.

I would like to see them get paid more.... but it is not my call.

[shochu]

Grads from the better schools start at 20,000baht in the professional fields (needing licensing) in the city. When I went around the uni's here checking out the programs i talked to a number of grads and asked them what they could hope to start at after garaduation.

A lot of seasoned employees that can make it into a large firm or an international chain and eventually a high position can expect to make very good salaries. Yes the basic salaries are low but those who have the ability can make much more than you can imagine. How else are young professinals ( 25 - 35) affording to buy the new condos in the 2mil range. Most of these guys would have to be making 20,000+. and if you look at the job ads in the Post, many are higher paying jobs asking for Thai nationals. These salaries are also going up to meet the costs of finding qualified thai staff and to keep them.

Flight attendants make very good money - even for thai air - but more for an international airline where many thais are employed.

Those national averages do not really offer a realistic picture of life in bangers. Unfortunately - the better paying jobs and the better incomes will never be available to the majority - but in bangers - there are many here who make much more than the national average - especially if we are speaking of middle-class thais living/working in bangkok. It is best to not include the low paying service jobs as they are generally done by migrants who do not live the typical city life and are generally from outside the city. It is best to assume the low paying jobs in regards to life outside the city in terms of trying to live on it because as Heng has said - most city folk in bangers probably have a large family network to rely on - so asking the question could you live on the natinal average is pointless.

As one poster already mentioned - do not underestimate the underground economy - catering to tourists and the other stuff off the books.

One example are the guys selling stuff on the tables/wheeled carts (the street venders) - although they have to pay a fee to be there - some of them make some serious coin - I can imagine some of the street venders in bangers doing quite well - particularly in the busier areas.

Also, there are a lot of small shops and the ones with high volume sales make good money.

When I am in bangers I always go to the same coffee shop and I see the same young professionals and students coming in dropping 100Baht +/- almost on a dialy basis. I can't imagine them doing this if they were struggling.

[percy2]

The OP didn't ask only about Bangkok.

From the stats I posted one of the most revealing was that 49% of the population are employed in agriculture.

You'll probably find this really drags the average down.

Cheers

[Jandajoy]

Work at a family owned co. We have over 100 employees. Most have a BS degree, and they earn about 7K a month, with incentives that usually total to 8-10 a month at the most. Some of the staff have been with us for many years and they earn 15-20K. But that is around .05% of the staff that earn that type of money.

I would like to see them get paid more.... but it is not my call.

What do you earn?????

[shochu]

Percy - point duly noted.

I was replying to other posters who assume that not many salaries are high, or that it was not likely that there would be many high salaries.

[mattias33]

Well, point noted here aswell!! Maybe alot of you guys are from Bangkok, where i reccon offcourse there are alot more "high-income" - Thais than where i live (Samui). Here i seriously think that you can count the Thais with salerys 90k/month on one hand. Ive spoken to everything from doctors, police, govermentalworkers and they are nowhere near that. But offcourse there is the few that did´nt sell the family land but builded a big hotel on the beach and have it paid, and they might be making that money. Obviously Bangkok as the capital, and a respected city also worldwise, have more of te high-educated jobs and people. Still its noticeable that the average income all over Thailand is 7000 baht and for every high-incom(90k) there must be at least 25 lowincoms (below 7k) to make this average. And you know what, i think they are just as happy.

And as said before there are extra incomes in many of these low paid jobs, police take bribes, hotelstaff get tip and so on.

And another poster pointed out a good thing: The people standing with their little barbeque selling chickenwings and so on (in Samui they even come with a bikebarbeque to the house, or fruit,icecram, and so on) they are making some serious money. On a 5 hour shift/day if they are good and learned where to go. But fact remains that the average in Thailand is 7k so the 90k:s can not be as many as some claim. In bangkok you get another oppinion because i imagine you can meet one or even two Thais a day that make that money. In Samui i never saw one. Average is average.

[Jandajoy]

Seriously Dakha, what do you earn.

I think this is the essence of the OP's question. The ruling elite and the masses below. "and neither the twain shall meet"

Fairly, that is.

[Pundi64]

I guess around 15,000 a month , but I know many on a lot less . I supppose many share accomodation or live with family but it does not give much spending money for entertainment etc .

However the best times in life are often , looking back , when one has very little but many friends .

Golf caddie's wage average per week = 3,360 TB

per month= 13,320 TB

golf caddie fee at club 250 TB (average) les tax 230 TB

tip 250 TB (average)

7 day work week

Usual average per month 13,320 - ? considering tips

[Dakhar]

Work at a family owned co. We have over 100 employees. Most have a BS degree, and they earn about 7K a month, with incentives that usually total to 8-10 a month at the most. Some of the staff have been with us for many years and they earn 15-20K. But that is around .05% of the staff that earn that type of money.

I would like to see them get paid more.... but it is not my call.

What do you earn?????

Hard to say really. I get paid by 2 different companies to work for a 3rd company in Thailand. It is kind of like a taxi driver charging three ocupents to reach the same distination in one single haul. We worked it out this way because the company could not afford to pay me what my degrees are worth etc in the states.

I am also involved in profit shareing etc.

This year, I will be adding money from my own pocket to the employee's incentive pool, such that they will earn more money, and ultimatley so should I.

Regarding the rulling elite comment. I sacrificed a lot to be where I am, and the truth is I don't even think where I am is all that great to begin with. I gave my wife a good sum of money to buy a little land and place town houses on that land, so we also collect rent money every month.

Like I said, it is hard to calculate exactly what the income is, but it is over 200K a month and even with that I gross essentially 40-50% of what I did in the states. My actual net and savings works out to be essentially the same. Over all though, I would rather be in the states. But Thailand is where the wife wants to be.

I don't like to talk about this much because then the conversation swings to "200K, Psssha, that is what I spend on dog food" etc etc.

But the truth is, in the scheme of things, 200K does not bring you a bling bling life style. You can not afford nice cars, boats, land with a nice house etc. You can afford to use all the electricity you want, UBC, computers, taxis, fast foods etc. Basically 200K can give you the life style most people have in the states that earn 60-75K.... which is middle income.

I came here under the impression that 200K was a lot of money.... turns out, it isn't anything to get all that excited about. It is all relative from a person's life's past experiences. If I never had hot water, electricity, a microwave before...

I would be in heaven right now.

Edited January 27, 2008 by Dakhar

[PeaceBlondie]

How much farang earn is not the topic, and we do not need to ask other farang how much they earn. The other question from the OP is if we could live on the average Thai worker's wage.

[007]

I guess around 15,000 a month , but I know many on a lot less .

I suppose that the average salary in my field - banking - is about 20,000 baht. And yes, I can survive on that: cheap apartment, using public transport rather than taxis, regular girlfriend rather than partying in the bars every night, few holidays, cooking at home (Western diet with lots of beef, steaks, cheese, sausages) rather than eating out..

However, on the flipside I have to say that I have no health insurance or any other insurance. Should I ever get seriously ill (God forbid) or be in an emergency, no doubt I would be screwed..

Please remember that foreigners living in Thailand have much higher living costs: visa (sometimes work permit) costs, flight and other costs related to visas, higher costs for accomodation (would you want to live in a dirty 1,500 baht/month shack, sharing 20 sqm with six other people - pretty common among Thais?), cable TV, different diet (except you like three times rice each and every day), etc.; so no living on 7 or 8,000 baht a month is impossible for a (Western) foreigner.

Example:

Thai - accomodation: 750 baht/m. (shared),

food, snacks: 3,000 baht/m.,

transport 350 baht/m.,

clothes, cell phone, other: 400 baht/m.,

SUM: 4,500 baht/m.

Westerner - accomodation: 7,000 baht/m.,

food: 6,000 baht/m.,

transport: 4,000 baht/m. (public transport, occas. taxi, visa trips, flights to get visa),

visa costs: 1,500 baht/m. (on average),

clothes, cell phone, cable TV: 1,500 baht/m.

SUM: 20,000 baht/m. (Absolute minimum, excl. health care; living like a local, rather than having a quality life in Bangkok!! Possible, but not pleasant.)

Edited January 27, 2008 by 7

[Halfaboy]

The following is based on an issue of the Bangkok Post titled ‘the lost year – economic review – year end 2007’.

Average wages Q2 / 2007 in Baht per month: total general: 7985 Baht

Detailed breakdown (I did my best to carefully retype the content of the report however I hope I did not make serious mistakes). All figures are in Baht per month !

Agricultural: total average 3507

• Agriculture, hunting and forestry: 3.442

• Fishing: 4.968

Non agricultural: total average 8712

• Mining and quarrying: 9.146

• Manufacturing: 6.884

• Electricity, gas and water supply: 18.399

• Construction: 5.301

• Whole sale / retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and personal and household goods: 7.494

• Hotels and restaurants: 6061

• Transport storage and communication: 12.549

• Financial intermediation: 18.256

• Real estate, renting and business activities: 10.698

• Public admin and defence, compulsory social security: 11.788

• Education: 17.359

• Health and social work: 10.648

• Other community, social and personal service act.: 6.457

• Private households with employed persons : 4.696

• Extra territorial organizations and bodies: 80.558

• Unknown: 8.930

Source: national statistic office.

[happylarry]

It was quoted in an earlier post that doctors in Samui earn less than 90,000 a month, well I know that the top doctors in the private hospitals are on between 200,000 and 300,000 baht per month. Nice work if you can get it, aye.

[peely]

i would find it very difficult to survive on the Thai wage, thank god for internet selling.

[uptou]

Yes,i think that in asia they can live quite easily with many people sleeping in one small room,whereas us westerners are just not used to this on a permanent basis.I've shared a small apartment with 6 other thais,for a short while,& they always bought food for the group rather than individually.

Then i guess its the whiskey thats the next expense.