Salaries In Thailand

[Austeyr]

I did a search and i could not find any relevant answers to my question so i apologize if this has already been covered.

From my understanding, foreigners must earn a minimum income of 50,000baht depending on nationality or if you work in an education related position. What confuses me is why there so many job vacancies advertised that offer salaries with work permits of between 30 - 40k in other job positions in varying other trades other than teaching. Is the 50k law not enforced? and how if so, wouldn't this leave the employer open for being sued by his employee if he were ever to take legal action for not paying the full salary requirement? If this is illegal how do business's get away with advertising jobs paying below the legal wage?

[wintermute]

Heh, a 50,000 minimum wage just for foreigners? You must be dreaming and you also misunderstood what the minimum is for. It's to qualify for certain visas. That doesn't mean anyone actually has to pay you that amount.

[dave111223]

I think the minimum foreign employee salary are just for Work Permit tax requirements.

So you might be actually making 30K, but you'd have to be paying taxes as if you were making 50K...

[CWMcMurray]

Actually the salary requirements are the min required to qualify for a 1 yr visa extension.

You can get a work permit for less... the problem is that you will then be required to do visa runs every 3 mo...

[soundman]

AKAIK minimum salary requirements per nationality are for certain Non Imm "B" - "Business" visa extensions.

If you are on a Non Imm "O" - "marriage or support" type extension there are no minimum salary requirements from Imigration, however, the labour department most likely will not be willing to issue a work permit to a foreigner on a 5000B per month salary.

[2008bangkok]

The minimum salary a foreigner has to earn is 40k to qualify for a workpermit application

[pjclark1]

Businesses usually issue two contracts.

One for the government minimum, which you pay tax on.

The other for the real wage (lower) that they pay you.

It's just how they do stuff out here!

[PattayaParent]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

[khunstuart]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

I have to say if thats a thai company you are paying well over the avaerage. My thai Niece just graduted university and works as an enviromental scientist and only earns 17,000 a month. Average petrol pump attaendant ears about 10,000 a month.

whats the company i will get my niece to apply lol

[mizzi39]

The minimum salary a foreigner has to earn is 40k to qualify for a workpermit application

Depends on where you are in the kingdom. Maybe the minimum in BKK is 40k, but in the provinces this is significantly lower. 25k will secure you a work permit (possibly even less). Anyone that can afford to live here on less than 25k should not even worry about securing a WP, since this would be the least of your problems.

[dave111223]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

Surely they must be doing more than standard "secretarial" work (answering phones, filing papers, scheduling etc..) for 50K a month...?

[pjclark1]

Maybe the boss gets a few 'extras'

[Geekfreaklover]

I think there is an exception to the rule for teachers and educators. Anyway it is the amount of tax that is paid, not the salery, that is checked for visa applications.

[hkt83100]

It depends on your country/nationality. A friend of mine had dual citizenship, the possible limits were for Canada 45000 Baht and South Africa 25000 Baht. So he went the SA way to save taxes...

[sonderup]

We pay our Thai secretaries 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

I have to say if thats a thai company you are paying well over the avaerage. My Thai Niece just graduated university and works as an environmental scientist and only earns 17,000 a month. Average petrol pump attendant ears about 10,000 a month.

whats the company i will get my niece to apply lol

Wau thats some very well paid jobs I can see. A private school teacher earns less than 8k a month in there first couples of years then going up. One of my very good mate's here in Thailand, got a wife working as a government teacher with 19+ years on her shoulders and gets around 11k in a central BANGKOK school.

I know some office clerks with 5+ years at the same company. Less than 10k in Lad Phrao or a full time job at MK that pays 7k with or without a degree. Or an accounting position in Din Daeng that pays 12K. .... and a full time 7/11 job with a uni degree gets paid 250 bth a day. Or my ex who worked as a ass. manager in a downtown department store got 8+ b/month fixed salary, add commission roughly 4000 and ass. manager surcharge 2k after 10 years at the biggest chain in Bangkok with a Uni degree in marketing and excellent English skills working 6 days a week from 9.30am to 9pm most of the time standing up. Only on her officedays she could sit down all day.

Or my banklady who have been working in the same bank for 11+ years and gets 16+ b/month. Or my wifes best friend, who's a nurse working on one of the top 10 hospitals in Bangkok and getting paid less than 9k a month without overtime. With overtime and 6 days a week she passes 13k a month. And she even speaks English. So she gets 600 b more a month that her coworkers with the same credentials.

Edited December 16, 2009 by sonderup

[jazzbo]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

50K -- proofreading included? (although I certainly make my share of mistakes)

[wintermute]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

Sure you do.

[samran]

Is this turning into a 'when I was a lad' thread of people we know who get paid the least?

[PattayaParent]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

I have to say if thats a thai company you are paying well over the avaerage. My thai Niece just graduted university and works as an enviromental scientist and only earns 17,000 a month. Average petrol pump attaendant ears about 10,000 a month.

whats the company i will get my niece to apply lol

We're a Korean company with all university degree qualified Thai staff.

[givenall]

I think the minimum foreign employee salary are just for Work Permit tax requirements.

So you might be actually making 30K, but you'd have to be paying taxes as if you were making 50K...

Depending on your nationality you have to make 50k per month is you are European or US citizen to quality for work permit. At least pay taxes for the minimum salary you have to have easy if you have your own business). As teacher the limit is a lot less and you can also work part time teaching job to qualify for work permit if you school cooperate to provide the documents.

[OriginalPoster]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

I have to say if thats a thai company you are paying well over the avaerage. My thai Niece just graduted university and works as an enviromental scientist and only earns 17,000 a month. Average petrol pump attaendant ears about 10,000 a month.

whats the company i will get my niece to apply lol

We're a Korean company with all university degree qualified Thai staff.

That' still way high if you're talking about an ordinary secretary. By chance is that a higher-end secretary, perhaps the one that takes care of the company's managing director? I too worked for a MNC that employed primarily college educated Thais - there a 50,000 baht salary was about what a first level engineering manager would be getting. An entry level engineer with a BS degree from a Thai university would get about half that.

Edited December 17, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[Tanaka]

We pay our Thai secretaried 50,000 Baht a month so how do they reckon Franag salaries should eb so low?

Troll post?

[soundman]

Average petrol pump attaendant ears about 10,000 a month.

Actually, about 4900B - 5500B per month (in Prachinburi - minimum wage 163B per day.).

Couldn't imagine the Labor department issueing a work permit for that.

[PoorSucker]

I pay taxes on 30.000 baht/moth and have a work permit.

[PattayaParent]

That' still way high if you're talking about an ordinary secretary. By chance is that a higher-end secretary, perhaps the one that takes care of the company's managing director? I too worked for a MNC that employed primarily college educated Thais - there a 50,000 baht salary was about what a first level engineering manager would be getting. An entry level engineer with a BS degree from a Thai university would get about half that.

Highest position is Project Manager.

Considering when I came here 15 years ago the US company I worked for were paying secretaries 25,000 Baht (US$1,000 back then) then 50,000 Baht now (US$1,500) seems about right.

The US company were paying the Thai Engineers 80,000 Baht back then.

[OriginalPoster]

That' still way high if you're talking about an ordinary secretary. By chance is that a higher-end secretary, perhaps the one that takes care of the company's managing director? I too worked for a MNC that employed primarily college educated Thais - there a 50,000 baht salary was about what a first level engineering manager would be getting. An entry level engineer with a BS degree from a Thai university would get about half that.

Highest position is Project Manager.

Considering when I came here 15 years ago the US company I worked for were paying secretaries 25,000 Baht (US$1,000 back then) then 50,000 Baht now (US$1,500) seems about right.

The US company were paying the Thai Engineers 80,000 Baht back then.

Something's wrong with either your numbers or with the job descriptions that you are using. 80,000 baht/month is more in-line with what a Singaporean engineer would be making in Singapore that what a Thai engineer would be making in Thailand. Must be very senior engineers with excellent language skills to be pulling in the salaries that you are talking about. If those wages were customary amongst MNC's in Thailand, there wouldn't be very many MNC's in Thailand.

[PattayaParent]

Where can an MNC get a qualified engineer in their home country for US$3,000 a month????

[OriginalPoster]

Where can an MNC get a qualified engineer in their home country for US$3,000 a month????

They can't, but they can go to Singapore and get vastly superior engineers for that money or go to China and get engineers who are vastly cheaper than that.

[TimTang]

AKAIK minimum salary requirements per nationality are for certain Non Imm "B" - "Business" visa extensions.

If you are on a Non Imm "O" - "marriage or support" type extension there are no minimum salary requirements from Imigration, however, the labour department most likely will not be willing to issue a work permit to a foreigner on a 5000B per month salary.

The portion I highlighted above is not the case any more, at least for support. Believe me I found out the hard way the day before my visa expired.

At my last visa extension attempt my application was rejected even though I brought the identical set of documents as per last years requirement. I was told that I require 400 thousand in the bank or proof of 40 thousand per/month total family income (you can include your spouse). I explained that the visa reg's said I didn't require any proof of savings or income. He explained that the rules were changed in December of 2008.

So for those unaware of these new reg's, be forewarned. I had to hightail it out of the country the same day, as I was totally unaware of this.

[dave111223]

AKAIK minimum salary requirements per nationality are for certain Non Imm "B" - "Business" visa extensions.

If you are on a Non Imm "O" - "marriage or support" type extension there are no minimum salary requirements from Imigration, however, the labour department most likely will not be willing to issue a work permit to a foreigner on a 5000B per month salary.

The portion I highlighted above is not the case any more, at least for support. Believe me I found out the hard way the day before my visa expired.

At my last visa extension attempt my application was rejected even though I brought the identical set of documents as per last years requirement. I was told that I require 400 thousand in the bank or proof of 40 thousand per/month total family income (you can include your spouse). I explained that the visa reg's said I didn't require any proof of savings or income. He explained that the rules were changed in December of 2008.

So for those unaware of these new reg's, be forewarned. I had to hightail it out of the country the same day, as I was totally unaware of this.

The 400K or 40K salary has been a requirement for the 1 Year type O supporting spouse visa for quite awhile. They did away with the 400K and turned only to 40K for awhile, but i think it's back to the 400K or 40K now... Not sure when you were able to obtain a Type O 1 year extension without either....?