Night of the Iguana: Old Fogies with young Thai Nubiles. Do they mix?

[bendshead]

How's it going? I am from US and got a job offer with a global Fortune 5O company, working with one of their Thai operating companies on a two-year contract basis as an IT project manager. So far the offer is 8Ok/month plus two-month bonus. Don't yet know if that's given at end of contract or annually. Of course, I'm going to be very determined for annual basis.

In any case, I've been told all along that the compensation would be on the Thai standard and I know already that the company has not been doing ex-pat

"packages" for many years. Nevertheless, I feel the offer is short, and wanted to get some advice on how to negotiate a more reasonable financial proposition for myself before discussing with them. I am planning to request three flights home, medical and dental benefits, and a stipend to pay expenses toward certification in my field.

Is there anything more I could expect from a reasonable compensation package?

How much tax should I expect to pay, and will I be excluded from paying US taxes as well? I know I need to report the income I earn to the IRS, but I understand ultimately I will not owe any taxes on the income earned while living and working in Thailand. Could you clarify?

Thanks for your help.

Also, note that I've lived in country before and have a very good idea how far 8Ok gets you. All great and fine if you're not leaving Thailand, but another story when you have financial commitments back home. I'm looking for ways to take some of the pressure off.

[richardt1808]

Hi,

80K is something that any capable Thai senior manager could earn in any Thai company and is a ridiculous salary for an IT project manager. I work for a large, but fully Thai owned company on a Thai package and I earn almost double that amount. If it is a 2 year project, then it must be important and since there are loads of very capable IT people here, you must have something added to offer, over and above someone local.

When Thai companies mention a one or two month bonus, it means anually; and 2 months would be pretty common for a high profile company. I wouldn't bother about the medical and a free flights issue - HR departments loathe this kind of thing. Just ask for a better base salary and get the insurance yourself. There is an insurance broker service on this forum and very good packages are easy to arrange. You can of course use all these things to motivate for a bigger salary and flights home and your personal committments to family and things back home are totally reasonable.

At the end of the day look at it this way: If the company were purchasing off-the-shelf SW, they could be paying 30 to 50 Million Baht for something substantial. The fact that they are developing in-house means that they have already studied the costs of a commercial package, so they have a bench-mark on which to base their costs. If a good consultant costs them 150K per month for 2 years, that is still only 10% of the commercial package cost so they are saving loads of money anyway. Thai companies are not shy to pay for something they want and a 150K salary for 2 years is less than the cost of a good car here. If you're good at what you do, then go for it.

Good luck !

[Nio]

Is the 80K in Thai Baht?

If so that is quite, quite low

However, with the economy the way it is here they may feel they can get people for much less

[gregb]

No global multinational is going to pay under 120k for an IT project manager unless you are really junior and absolutely no experience. If you have any skill at all, that offer is pretty much insulting. A small Thai domestic company without any performance expectations maybe. But a multinational with an actual reputation to uphold?

80k doesn't go as far any more today as it used to. Everything is getting expensive. You can live on 80k, but if you're expecting to save any money you can probably forget about it.

While you may not be paying US taxes on your salary, you are going to paying Thai taxes, and because the high tax rates in Thailand start at so much lower levels than in the states, it is basically a wash. Someone making around $50k USD pays close to the same if not more. You can expect your Thai tax bill on that to be around $10K. I think federal taxes would be less in the US. Don't expect to get any big tax advantages.

All in all I would give that offer a pass. Tell them to bump it up by minimum 50% if they are serious. Otherwise you would have to be pretty desperate to come here.

[bendshead]

Thanks for jumping, Greg. I hope you can all see the range of responses this scenario brings to light. You have Richard who is saying B8Ok/month is what a senior level manager would make all the way to GregB saying B12Ok/month being the bare minimum. Doesn't exactly clarify for me. I know this much: it is rather short. And I don't quite understand the value in low-balling a candidate that you want to hire if it opens the possibility of feeling undervalued and spiraling from there... Is there anyway to validate this salary information I'm getting? I found one popular salary survey that suggests low 1OOs is the high range.

Confused mak. What gives?

No global multinational is going to pay under 120k for an IT project manager unless you are really junior and absolutely no experience. If you have any skill at all, that offer is pretty much insulting. A small Thai domestic company without any performance expectations maybe. But a multinational with an actual reputation to uphold?

80k doesn't go as far any more today as it used to. Everything is getting expensive. You can live on 80k, but if you're expecting to save any money you can probably forget about it.

While you may not be paying US taxes on your salary, you are going to paying Thai taxes, and because the high tax rates in Thailand start at so much lower levels than in the states, it is basically a wash. Someone making around $50k USD pays close to the same if not more. You can expect your Thai tax bill on that to be around $10K. I think federal taxes would be less in the US. Don't expect to get any big tax advantages.

All in all I would give that offer a pass. Tell them to bump it up by minimum 50% if they are serious. Otherwise you would have to be pretty desperate to come here.

[bendshead]

Here's the salary market research I found for a contracted IT Project Manager. Is everyone saying this is still too low? Am I looking in the wrong places?

Adecco: 60k - 150k monthly

Kelly Services: 50k - 60k monthly

PMI (Project Mgmnt Institute): 75k - 108k monthly

[popeye33]

im no expert.

but sounds like they keeping their word by sayiing they pay by thai standards.

80k aint worth it. AND THEY NOT GIVING BENEFITS LIKE HEALTHCARE