Some Thai Women Work For As Little As Bt15 A Day

[henryalleman]

No need to shout henry.....I dont recall disbelieving that fact, if it is incase a fact.....I couldnt be bothered opening all those excel spread sheets, sorry.

I come on here to thai visa nearly every day and work my backside off to try and make everyone see things my way......I don't get paid for my efforts either.....geeze hows a bloke suppose to put food on the table

Maybe if you did stroll in the spread sheets from the NSO (their own National Statistics Office),you will find out some more staggering facts.

Like that more than 40% of farm workers in Isan don't get paid also, this is beside the more than 500 000 family workers( household staff), that there are less Doctors per capita than in Laos. In short Thailand is a social jungle.

And this go's for ALL Thai people, not only the ones in Isan and Up North, but also for the urban Thai who's poverty is sometimes even worse than in the countryside. Just take a walk in a small back soi in any small, mid size of big town in the country. There living conditions are sometimes pure horror.

So maybe you will have more understanding for the common Thai, and how they are cheated and brainwashed to keep them docile and obedient. Otherwise the country was set already long time on fire

That's why I have a deep empathy for the common Thai, and that's why I do respect them.

We should be very carefully to make negative comments on them.

But its oh so easy to give comments without knowing the facts, because people are not interested to do some research.

And that's why I had to shout.

and of course if you've got a job and your not getting paid for it, is that really a job?

Of course for us westerners this is not a real job, but hey we are in Thailand isn't? A country with his own strange logic.

I love the Thai people but this is not meaning I love the country as an whole.

.

[henryalleman]

More than 500 000 Thai are not getting an salary at all for their work

Watching rice grow is counted as "working" in Thai employment statistics.

[SaratogaSki]

How about $20 a month working 8 + hrs a day-- that is what a friend is getting in Hanoi Vietnam in the hotel busness.

[h90]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Considering how long we couldn't find a homemaid for 5000 Baht a month I consider it as a blank propaganda lie......

Even illegal Myanmar worker get 2500 Baht per month.

[FairwayJack]

If they can pull around a golf cart they can make 600+ baht per day. I once added up my caddy's tally and I was tipping her 6K per month to work 4 1/2 hours a day, 2 or 3 times a week.

[phuketrex]

On the building site right in front of my apartment they are on 10baht/hour...10 hours per day...3000baht per month.

[luangtom]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Believe it...my nieces have worked in the Isaan cutting sugar-cane for 50-baht

per day, working twelve-hours. So, domestic-chores, et al, are not unheard of paying 15

baht per day or thereabouts. 20-baht is common.

[dumball]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Believe it...my nieces have worked in the Isaan cutting sugar-cane for 50-baht

per day, working twelve-hours. So, domestic-chores, et al, are not unheard of paying 15

baht per day or thereabouts. 20-baht is common.

50Baht a day ? We pay more than that to village rice cutters in Cambodia , and they get fed and watered to boot , work only 10 hours including time to eat .

[loong]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Considering how long we couldn't find a homemaid for 5000 Baht a month I consider it as a blank propaganda lie......

Even illegal Myanmar worker get 2500 Baht per month.

Propaganda? yes probably....A lie? I'm afraid not

I know of people who earn less than 15 Baht per day

They go out and collect grass, dry and stain it, then weave it to make mats.

2 people work together and just to weave 1 mat takes nearly a day.

These mats sell for 40 Baht or 3 for 100 - do the sums.

If they can pull around a golf cart they can make 600+ baht per day. I once added up my caddy's tally and I was tipping her 6K per month to work 4 1/2 hours a day, 2 or 3 times a week.

You're not talking about salary here, you're talking about your over generosity. If you go 10 times a month you are tipping 600 Baht each time?

I think that there are very few vacancies for caddies and I imagine English language is a necessity, so not a job that these women can do.

[loong]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Believe it...my nieces have worked in the Isaan cutting sugar-cane for 50-baht

per day, working twelve-hours. So, domestic-chores, et al, are not unheard of paying 15

baht per day or thereabouts. 20-baht is common.

Cutting sugar cane is actually a skilled job and paid on results. My stepson went last year to earn some pocket money and I think he earnt about 30 Baht on his first day. After a week, he was able to earn 200 Baht per day. My brother-in-law is a very hard worker and can earn up to 700 Baht per day in ideal conditions, but normally 4 or 500 Baht.

[FairwayJack]

(quote) You're not talking about salary here, you're talking about your over generosity. If you go 10 times a month you are tipping 600 Baht each time?

I think that there are very few vacancies for caddies and I imagine English language is a necessity, so not a job that these women can do.

I believe caddies get about 200 salary per day from the clubs and I used to tip 500 for over 2 years when I first got here (my caddy was gorgeous) ...but I wised up and went to 350 and your basic plain jane. They make better caddies anyhow. Noted your point about English and job suitability...I agree....pay no attn to me

Edited March 11, 2009 by FairwayJack

[Zpete]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

I agree with Blondie.

Any woman could get more sitting near a station with a coffee cup and a small sign.

Must be hourly wage.

[Jimjim]

i thought there was a Min wage of 290 THB a day or something here in Thailand?

There are different minimum wages for each province, with Bangkok the highest at around 260 baht/hour, I believe. Places like Phuket are less but higher than the lowest.

Edit: Ok, instead of reading my post, look at the list somebody put on page one. But it's true that minimum wage doesn't apply for many who are essentially working on results or for themselves selling trinkets on the streets, etc.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Jimjim

[loong]

There are different minimum wages for each province, with Bangkok the highest at around 260 baht/hour,

I think that should be per day, not hour

[samuidave]

and I paraphrase,

"It is shameful for well-governed countries to have poor; and is is shameful to be rich is poorly-governed countries"

[JoeThePoster]

More than 500 000 Thai are not getting an salary at all for their work

Watching rice grow is counted as "working" in Thai employment statistics.

<deleted> is your problem?

and of course if you've got a job and your not getting paid for it, is that really a job?

Of course for us westerners this is not a real job, but hey we are in Thailand isn't? A country with his own strange logic.

[h90]

I simply do not believe the claim of 15 baht for a working day. Maybe 15 baht an hour.

Considering how long we couldn't find a homemaid for 5000 Baht a month I consider it as a blank propaganda lie......

Even illegal Myanmar worker get 2500 Baht per month.

Propaganda? yes probably....A lie? I'm afraid not

I know of people who earn less than 15 Baht per day

They go out and collect grass, dry and stain it, then weave it to make mats.

2 people work together and just to weave 1 mat takes nearly a day.

These mats sell for 40 Baht or 3 for 100 - do the sums.

If they can pull around a golf cart they can make 600+ baht per day. I once added up my caddy's tally and I was tipping her 6K per month to work 4 1/2 hours a day, 2 or 3 times a week.

You're not talking about salary here, you're talking about your over generosity. If you go 10 times a month you are tipping 600 Baht each time?

I think that there are very few vacancies for caddies and I imagine English language is a necessity, so not a job that these women can do.

I was under the impression that the article means salaries, after re-reading it, it is not complete clear for me....

If they collect grass and make mats for that money, than they are self-employed and are doing the wrong thing.

2005 and 2006 I would have been happy to earn 15 Baht per day in my company, in fact I paid in 1000 Euro per month and worked without salary. If mats is bad business than they should do something different....

[loong]

I was under the impression that the article means salaries, after re-reading it, it is not complete clear for me....

If they collect grass and make mats for that money, than they are self-employed and are doing the wrong thing.

2005 and 2006 I would have been happy to earn 15 Baht per day in my company, in fact I paid in 1000 Euro per month and worked without salary. If mats is bad business than they should do something different....

The article mentioned women working at a job which enabled them to take care of their children. I got the impression that 15 Baht was not salary for an 8 hour day, but a shortened day to give them the free time when their children finished school.

If mats is bad business than they should do something different..

Now that's really good advice. I wonder why they never thought of that.

At times when other work is available of course they do it. It's just not available all of the time.

[fiddlehead]

My Mother in Law in Issan used to go to work in the sugar cane fields for 55 baht a day. (before i came on the scene)

But 15 baht a day? Wow, that's sad.

[mellow1]

I live in the sticks in Issan, and many times we have had a hard time finding workers. We where paying 200 Baht for 8 hours work, for unskilled labor. Cutting grass and the likes. The subject in this thread is a load of shit. But people will believe anything I guess.

[loong]

I live in the sticks in Issan, and many times we have had a hard time finding workers. We where paying 200 Baht for 8 hours work, for unskilled labor. Cutting grass and the likes. The subject in this thread is a load of shit. But people will believe anything I guess.

Read the original post and you will see that they are discussing women who require flexible hours so that they are able to give time to their children. So they probably can't start work until 9am and have to leave at 2 or 2-30pm to collect the children from school. They cannot do a full 8 hours work.

Maybe you have a hard time finding workers because everybody wants to have their grass cut at the same time of year and the people can earn more than 200 Baht per day elsewhere. Lets face it 200 Baht a day is F***all.

What are you offering? 200 Baht a day for how many days in the year? Are you going to employ them for the full year? If not what do you expect them to do the rest of the year. They have to take what they can get.