Thai Wages

[Moving]

I am in the process of starting a business in Pattaya...or at least looking at the feasibility and amount of risk I want to absorb.

My initial questions are;

For the Pattaya area:

What is an average wage/salary for a food service worker?

Speak some English

Can make change

Maintain very fundamental cash records

Personable, customer orientated

Working by themselves or perhaps one other employee

Other than a fair wage, do Thai workers at this level expect any additional compensation.

What are the legal aspects of employing Thai workers.

Would welcome recommendations to a firm that does this sort of consulting/research for a living.

Know that this is pretty sketchy but I would like to get the ball rolling...

[Indo-Siam]

Thai legal minimum wages are laid out at: Minimum Wage

Personal income tax withholding effectively begins to be required when monthly salary approaches 12,000 baht per month.

For all salaried employees, company social fund payments are required – as of January 2004, 4.5% must be withheld from salaries, and employer must submit that amount, plus a matching amount (for a total of 9% of pay) to social fund office.

All employees are effectively on “probation” for initial 120 days. After 120 days, they are considered regular employees, and liable for severance pay. In cases of sudden termination, they are entitled to remainder of present month, plus following month’s salary, and THEN severance pay. Severance pay rates (based on employee’s most recent pay rate at end of employment):

More than 120, but less than 365 days - One month severance pay

One to three years service - Three months severance pay

Three to six years service - Six months severance pay

Six to ten years service - Eight months severance pay

Personal income tax rates are tiered: For annual income:

First 50,000 baht is not taxed

50,001 to 100,000 baht is taxed at 5%

100,001 to 500,000 baht is taxed at 10%

500,001 to 1,000,000 baht is taxed at 20%

1,000,001 to 4,000,000 baht is taxed at 30%

All income above 4,000,000 baht is taxed at 37%

Finally - go to Job Thai, and enter Bachelor degree in middle box. Then play around with top box (Hotel/Touring, or Food) and bottom box (enter KFC, or Pizza) - and you will get a list of resumes. In those resumes, you will find references to job history - including salary - and lots of people worked at fast food joints to earn money during college. It looks like fast food restaurants pay between about 4,500 baht and 7,500 baht per month for "Customer Service" staff. 15,000 to 17,500 baht to manage.

By the way, Thaksin worked at KFC while attending undergraduate schooling in Kentucky, and his wife worked at Burger King while he was getting a graduate degree in Texas. See Paying Their Dues

So - never underestimate who may come work for you. If you run the operation as a "stepping stone" experience (instead of a "dead end" job) you can maybe attract some really good talent.

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

www.thaitradedata.com

www.bangkokstaff.com

[Sunbelt Asia]

Excellent Post Steve.

As for wages… McDonalds pays 22 baht per hour. Starbucks pays 28 Baht per hour. They do that on the hourly so the employee won’t be calling in “sick” as much.

At Subway, we pay 6,000 Baht monthly for the sandwich artists to 10,000 for assistant mgr. The manager gets 12,000 Baht and General mgr gets 35,000 Baht. We pay monthly to find in our opinion better candidates and treat them as adults. Most do not take advantage of talking sick leave that is not really the case but probably 10% of the employees do from time to time. We have found though in these cases they catch flack from their co-workers as they appreciate the system and don’t want it changed.

In a typical restaurant, the typical waiter/waitress gets 5,100 to 6,000 per month. Some get the entire 10% service fee to the kitchen staff and dining room help and other restaurants pay a portion or none at all.

[Moving]

Thanks to Indo-Siam and Sunbelt.....

Let's see, at entry level an average of about 5-8K per month, a manager 12-16 K and from other sources I am looking at it appears this is for a 10-12 hour day with two, maybe three, holidays a month...

It is not surprising that many are attracted to an occupation that can turn 6-8K per week, working only 3-5 nights, and on occasion will get a paid 2-5 day vaction thrown in.

[Sunbelt Asia]

48 hour week and 13 official Holidays per year is the norm.