Across-The-Board Hike Of 40% Likely Today: Thailand Minimum Wage

[ozzydom]

Hmmm. "Cost of living is very low".. I personally beg to disagree, I find with the exception of some labor charges the cost of practically everything here is higher than it is in the United States, what to speak of nearby places like India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, etc. Check the cost of cars, trucks, petrol, clothing, and particularly food. Thailand was really a fabulous place 20-30 years ago when I first arrived, but it is not any real bargain any longer. Of course, life in the village where my wife is from, and life here in the city are different stories.

If the cost of living is so high in Thailand, how does anyone survive on $6 a day? In the west, that wouldn't even buy you a meal.

Yes, the cost of western foods and other goods are similar prices to the US or Aus, but the cost of labour is MUCH cheaper and that is reflected in the costs of services and locally made goods.

As an example, in Aus, it costs 100 baht to get into a taxi, and 50 baht per km. In Thailand, it costs 35 baht and about 5 baht per km. Public transport costs about 180 baht minimum in Melbourne, compared to as little as 10 baht here. Eating out is much cheaper here, mainly because the the staff are paid so little.

I'm not sure of the costs of ASEAN countries, but they would all be relative to the wages that are being paid there.

Relativity makes comparing costs here and in the west a no-brainer.

For instance how can you compare taxi fares with Oz where a taxi license is over 30 million baht and a half good driver earns 30-40k baht for 5 x 12 hour shifts.

[softgeorge]

It makes me wonder h these big department stores prosper so well. Even if they doubled the thai wage these people still wouldn't be able to afford to shop in them. A lot of thais must already be on very good wages to support these stores,

[softgeorge]

Hmmm. "Cost of living is very low".. I personally beg to disagree, I find with the exception of some labor charges the cost of practically everything here is higher than it is in the United States, what to speak of nearby places like India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, etc. Check the cost of cars, trucks, petrol, clothing, and particularly food. Thailand was really a fabulous place 20-30 years ago when I first arrived, but it is not any real bargain any longer. Of course, life in the village where my wife is from, and life here in the city are different stories.

If the cost of living is so high in Thailand, how does anyone survive on $6 a day? In the west, that wouldn't even buy you a meal.

Yes, the cost of western foods and other goods are similar prices to the US or Aus, but the cost of labour is MUCH cheaper and that is reflected in the costs of services and locally made goods.

As an example, in Aus, it costs 100 baht to get into a taxi, and 50 baht per km. In Thailand, it costs 35 baht and about 5 baht per km. Public transport costs about 180 baht minimum in Melbourne, compared to as little as 10 baht here. Eating out is much cheaper here, mainly because the the staff are paid so little.

I'm not sure of the costs of ASEAN countries, but they would all be relative to the wages that are being paid there.

Relativity makes comparing costs here and in the west a no-brainer.

For instance how can you compare taxi fares with Oz where a taxi license is over 30 million baht and a half good driver earns 30-40k baht for 5 x 12 hour shifts.

good money for the indian students driving the taxis.

[softgeorge]

Low compared to what, North Korea? It's only low when you're low end, such as mediocre housing rental or dining out noodles on the street, but for anything of substance, such as quality food & wines, car imports, or mortgages and loans for vehicles, proper internet, it is the same, if not more, than the West. I agree with the post above yours, although those buying votes are clever as they know full well the masses are too stoopid to know what they're buying into.

Eating noodles off the street makes it extremely cheap, but even eating in restaurants is relatively cheap. Ofcourse, if you're wanting to eat imported foods, then you have to pay for that, but that's mostly due to import taxes.

I have proper internet here costing me 640 baht. It would cost me twice that in Aus.

I ate out last night at a reasonable restaurant - 800 baht for 2 people, including some beers. You wouldn't get that in the west.

you had thai fast food in a semi clean establishement.

If you were to go to a local fast food place in the west and get a few beers with a burgers and onion ring.. or even a pita with kebab(which is closer to the type of thai fastfood you had) it would of cost you around 600-1k baht as well.

You'd see the difference if you understood that a decent restaurant in the west can only compare to a high quality royal thai cuisine restaurant. Thais mostly eat fast food even in those fake fancy places

You assume that Thai fast food is not Quality food. My wife and I have a very sucsessful Thai Restaurant and the food is fast and very good

Not Bangkok street vendor prices but .www.thaionthefly.ca

slipped that little plug in nicely

[serenitynow]

Wow! Given this new interpretation of the law that includes food and housing as part of the 300 Bt/day wage, I may just have to give my workers a wage cut.

[daiwill60]

Low compared to what, North Korea? It's only low when you're low end, such as mediocre housing rental or dining out noodles on the street, but for anything of substance, such as quality food & wines, car imports, or mortgages and loans for vehicles, proper internet, it is the same, if not more, than the West. I agree with the post above yours, although those buying votes are clever as they know full well the masses are too stoopid to know what they're buying into.

Eating noodles off the street makes it extremely cheap, but even eating in restaurants is relatively cheap. Ofcourse, if you're wanting to eat imported foods, then you have to pay for that, but that's mostly due to import taxes.

I have proper internet here costing me 640 baht. It would cost me twice that in Aus.

I ate out last night at a reasonable restaurant - 800 baht for 2 people, including some beers. You wouldn't get that in the west.

Agree with what you are saying about prices but , 800 bht for a meal for two, you was ripped off or must have had a few beers or wine or something.

I and 2 friends, this afternoon ate a meal each, and a salad to share, 1 coke and two bottles of water 270 bht and we left saying we felt very full.

[IsaanUSA]

ThaiVisa is full of people making the claim that a single person can easily live on $1000 USD a month. I agree with that. But living on $1000 a month in America is a cruel joke.

Very easy. It's called a two bedroom apartment with a roommate. If you don't live in New York, Los Angles or Chicago, you can easily live on $1000 per month.

How do you think the Mexicans live here in the USA? They make less than minimum wage. How? It's called sharing of resources.

Anyways, I think the gradual rising of the min wage is the best way to go about this. There's no way you can just raise it to 300 over night, and no way in hell will the government retroactively enforce the wage increase.

[metisdead]

A post has been removed as a poster had deleted quoted post headers as he had reached the maximum number of nested quotes allowed leading to misunderstanding of who posted what. When replying to certain parts of a post, learn how to use the Insert quotation feature.

[peecee]

Okay, they raise the wages for the people who a making the things we need, hence the producers must simultaneously raise the price of their products, hence the net benefit to the workers will be nothing, but the government will certainly increase its revenue as the amount of VAT collected increases, along with all other taxes. It seems people interested in buying votes, do not think these matters through very well. The only net affect will be everything in Thailand becomes more costly, as though the cost of living here is not high enough today.

The cost of living in Thailand is very low. That's because and why the wages are very low.

Doesn't look low to me in the market, the cost of just about everything I buy is up; especially essentials such as beer & soap!

[daiwill60]

It makes me wonder h these big department stores prosper so well. Even if they doubled the thai wage these people still wouldn't be able to afford to shop in them. A lot of thais must already be on very good wages to support these stores,

Agree with you there mate, i am always amazed when walking around in the malls to see so many people buying stuff in all the designer stores, and yet there are so many staff doing sod all, and TBH how do they sustain the level of staff in some of these places is a question that sprung to mind recentlly. I then though mmmm its probably coz they pay them so little but at least it creates jobs and keeps them doing something rather than giving handouts for doing sod all like back in the UK.

How do so many Thais afford to also build so many of these big paosh houses and all drive around in expensive SUV's and pick ups, if they are all so lowly paid????

[IsaanUSA]

How do so many Thais afford to also build so many of these big paosh houses and all drive around in expensive SUV's and pick ups, if they are all so lowly paid????

Very good question indeed. I have often times wondered this.

Or even back to the Cambodia talk, how do they all drive Lexus SUV's?

[daiwill60]

A post has been removed as a poster had deleted quoted post headers as he had reached the maximum number of nested quotes allowed leading to misunderstanding of who posted what. When replying to certain parts of a post, learn how to use the Insert quotation feature.

Ok, for the benefit of the deleted poster and some of us others!!! where is the ''Insert Quote Feature", I just hit Reply all the time, Right or Wrong???

[longway]

Lunch: for 2 174 baht 4 delicious dishes and cokes at a local restaurant

Dinner: good pub meal for 3 including jug of magharita and 5 games of pool and generous tip in sukhumvit - 1100B

Taxi home under 50B

Thank you thailand.

:jap:

[TAWP]

Time for the Government to stop slavery, set the minimum wage at 3x300 a day.

I think you have a very weird concept of slavery...

[MAJIC]

Employers want the B300 to include overtime. How many hours / day do you have to work to get B300? Pick a number between 10 and 24.

OR sorry, no overtime today, wages reduced proportionately.

And how does reducing SS contributions by 1.5% of salary do much to offset a 40+% salary increase? All it will do is maintain roughly the same contributions to the scheme.

Pay B200 SS @ 5% = B10

Pay B280 SS @ 3.5 % = B9.8

I've said it before on more than one occasion but I'll mention it again. Why isn't the minimum wage based on an hourly rate as it is elsewhere?

I'm sure it makes more sense.

Something else I've just noticed. The headline reads Across-The-Board Hike Of 40% Likely Today: Thailand Minimum Wage but it appears it's not starting until January 1st.

The easy answer is: a Barman starts work in a Hotel at 7 am,does his bar stocking up and cleaning duties and prepares to open the Bar at 10 am,works serving in the Bar until the last customer goes to bed at 2 am the next day.

Total hours worked = 19 hours,same pay as working for 12 hours,normal Bar hours.

If he is very lucky he may leave and go home 11 or 12 oclock some nights for the same pay.

The above is a true example,of exploitation by employers,

and that IMO is why they do not pay by the Hour! because it benefits the employer too much.

Be a little realistic please. Are you saying that he will back at work 5 hours later? Most Thais seem to work a 60 hour week, in my experience. Shifts tend to vary in length, and are sometimes split, but longer shifts usually are balanced by more time off.

My neighbour works at a Samui resort, and sometimes has extra hours to meet a late flight, but gets time off to match the next day - they do not pay overtime.

Receptionists at the Pink Lady Hotel, Had Yai work 5 x 12 hour shifts, rotate through day and night.

My g/f worked at a non-girly expat bar - 2 girls starting 1 at 1500, the other at 1800 for 6 x 8 hr shifts per week. They rotated the early start/finish, 1 day off/week where the other girl worked alone.

Yes that is what he told me,as stated,there would be other nights when he finished before midnight.

My main point was: not being paid by the hour,suits the Employer, but definately not the Employee.

And also allows another malpractice,i.e if a monthy paid worker quits his job in the middle of the month,some unprincipled Employees,do not pay them anything.

[thaiIand]

1000$ in america is a lot more than in thailand

<deleted> you can buy a full HIGH GRADE tenderloin/striploin/rbieye for 25$. That's a lot of meals with some nice mashed potatoes and veggies.

a 150k house in most states is 500-1mil in thailand unless in the sticks built with crappy standards.

Hell i have a twin house here and my friends in america have twice the quality, twice the size and 6x the land and 1000x better infrastructure than me for the same price. They also have neighbors that are quiet at night, no rodents or dogs roaming, real garbage pickup, nonstop electricity.. Only negative is that they pay a lot more taxes.

Edited October 6, 2011 by thaiIand

[Felt 35]

Time for the Government to stop slavery, set the minimum wage at 3x300 a day.

I think you have a very weird concept of slavery...

Well then I’m not alone.

"We often here that investors complain they cannot find Thai workers to fill the jobs, and the reason is that Thai workers refuse those jobs because of extremely low wages and slave-like working conditions"

From a source not allowed mentioning on TV.

[TAWP]

Time for the Government to stop slavery, set the minimum wage at 3x300 a day.

I think you have a very weird concept of slavery...

Well then I’m not alone.

"We often here that investors complain they cannot find Thai workers to fill the jobs, and the reason is that Thai workers refuse those jobs because of extremely low wages and slave-like working conditions"

From a source not allowed mentioning on TV.

Slaves don't get paid. They are bought and sold.

An employee can choose where to work. As your quote highlights.

Therefor raising the minimum wage has nothing to do with preventing slavery.

[KKK]

Cost of living here can be cheap only because the law/system allows it.

Where in the west would houses with 3 inch thick walls, or no proper fire wall between terraced units, or lack of proper insulation be allowed? Thailand allows it and housing can be cheap.

Where in the west would rat infested noodle shops with no proper sanitation be allowed? Thailand allows it and eating out can be cheap.

You only get what you pay for...in Thailand you get little and pay little..You want western standard you can have it..at a price...often more than in the west because it is NOT the norm and NOT required.

Edited October 6, 2011 by KKK

[thaiIand]

Cost of living here can be cheap only because the law/system allows it.

Where in the west would houses with 3 inch thick walls, or no proper fire wall between terraced units, or lack of proper insulation be allowed? Thailand allows it and housing can be cheap.

Where in the west would rat infested noodle shops with no proper sanitation be allowed? Thailand allows it and eating out can be cheap.

You only get what you pay for...in Thailand you get little and pay little..You want western standard you can have it..at a price...often more than in the west because it is NOT the norm and NOT required.

for the price of those dirty un filling noodles full of oil and msg you could get a very filling hotdog with salad, onions and pickled relish. even 2 at some places.

[Felt 35]

Time for the Government to stop slavery, set the minimum wage at 3x300 a day.

I think you have a very weird concept of slavery...

Well then I’m not alone.

"We often here that investors complain they cannot find Thai workers to fill the jobs, and the reason is that Thai workers refuse those jobs because of extremely low wages and slave-like working conditions"

From a source not allowed mentioning on TV.

Slaves don't get paid. They are bought and sold.

An employee can choose where to work. As your quote highlights.

Therefor raising the minimum wage has nothing to do with preventing slavery.

You refer to chattel slavery as the transatlantic slave trade. The modern slavery is a bit more sophisticated.

Human trafficking in Thailand comes to mind. The few who can choose, but with nearly 60% of the workforce employed in the informal sector which again means no basic rights under labor laws, no social security, denied opportunities for training and advancement and on the top of that receive poverty wages it’s a bit overenthusiastic to say all emplyees can choose!

Raising the minimum wage enough will decrease inequality and further lower the amount of people in absolute poverty and in that way be a preventive against slave like working contracts and conditions. An employee who has a decent income and living standard is naturally less likely to be lured by underpaying employers.

[VegasVic]

1000$ in america is a lot more than in thailand

<deleted> you can buy a full HIGH GRADE tenderloin/striploin/rbieye for 25$. That's a lot of meals with some nice mashed potatoes and veggies.

a 150k house in most states is 500-1mil in thailand unless in the sticks built with crappy standards.

Hell i have a twin house here and my friends in america have twice the quality, twice the size and 6x the land and 1000x better infrastructure than me for the same price. They also have neighbors that are quiet at night, no rodents or dogs roaming, real garbage pickup, nonstop electricity.. Only negative is that they pay a lot more taxes.

Thailand, You are spot on in all aspects of your post here except for the fact of a $150,000 house in the U.S. being compared to a 500,000-1milion baht house in thailand. A $150,000 home in most areas of the U.S. is comparable to a $4 million+ baht home in Thailand, understanding like you stated that the home in the U.S. is likely on a lot 3-4 times the size of its thai counterpart, the construction standards are much higher in the U.S., and of course the infrastructure is far more developed even in rural areas of the U.S.. In depressed real estate markets in the U.S. like Arizona, Nevada, and Florida (I won't bring in places like Michigan, Ohio ect. because they can't compete with the year round weather) $150,000 will buy you a home that you couldn't touch for under 7 million baht in Thailand. That being said there are financial benefits to living in Thailand for someone with cash on hand but a limited stream of monthly income. First of all that $150,000 house in the U.S. will have between $1200 to $3000/year property taxes depending on where you live and then another $700/year in homeowners insurance, and if it is in a homeowners association community there will be monthly association dues as well(from $30-$300/mo), while the thai house will have no property taxes to speak of, much less insurance cost and much less association dues if located in an association. Some of the other financial advantages in Thailand would be in health insurance, food (locally grown fruits, vegatables and livestock), and transportation (public). A comprehensive private Health insurance coverage in the U.S. (if one does not yet qualify for medicare) will run you over $1000/month with substantially more in copays and deductables, while a similiar policy in Thailand will cost about $150/month, granted you will get much better medical care in the states but not 7-8 times better care. A whole barbqued chicken is $5-$6 in the states depending on the grocery store while it is around $2 nearly everywhere in Thailand, while pineapple,coconuts,mango and other local fruits and vegatables are about 1/5 of the normal price that they are in the states. Pork is also cheaper in thailand, but the beef in the U.S. is not only beter but cheaper as well (probably because it is far mor plentiful). Public transportation costs in Thailand are also far more inexpensive than the U.S, one can traverse nearly every corner of Thailnad by songthaew, tuktuk, taxi, bus or train at a very reasonable cost vs. the same milage if traveled in the U.S., and if one can learn to substitute Sangsom for VO or CC (I know the quality is not comparable but the results are the same) then you can relax with an adult beverage at a more reasonable cost than in the U.S.. All in all Thailand has its drawbacks, but if you can get past them and learn to eat more chicken and pork instead of cornfed T bones and ribeyes, and eat plenty of fresh local produce, then one could live and eat quite well in Thailand at a reasonable cost vs. the U.S., at least this is the advice I give to U.S. citizens asking my advice. I just realized that I left out the fact that seafood is far cheaper in Thailand than in the U.S., since I do not eat seafood I just forgot to mention it.

[KRS1]

Hmmm. "Cost of living is very low".. I personally beg to disagree, I find with the exception of some labor charges the cost of practically everything here is higher than it is in the United States, what to speak of nearby places like India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, etc. Check the cost of cars, trucks, petrol, clothing, and particularly food. Thailand was really a fabulous place 20-30 years ago when I first arrived, but it is not any real bargain any longer. Of course, life in the village where my wife is from, and life here in the city are different stories.

Totally incorrect, Thailand was not designed for foreigners (except for sukhumvit) Thailand is designed for Thais and priced accordingly. There's a Thailand outside of BKK while overpriced western amenities arent the standard for Thais, and why should it be? There are products which are every bit as good as the overpriced objects you are eluding to being overpriced, youre simply a victim of English speaking marketing tactics engineered to extract money from you by design.

I've been to Cambodia, and its very clear that you have never been there. Cambodia is much much more expensive than Thailand, a bowl of street noodles is literally 2-3 times as much, bottle of Johnny $100 in a club, company for the night same price. Cambodia is an overpriced shithole that was booming and drove up prices, while a small group reaped the benefits.

'$100 in a club, company for the night same price"

Sorry but your the one being screwed

I only buy the best.