300 Baht Minimum Wage In Chiang Mai?

[Ulysses G.]

I was wondering what is happening with the 300 baht per day minimum wage law that Yingluck talked about during the election. Has it been introduced in Chiang Mai yet?

[whatsupdoc]

1st of January 2013

[bluweyze]

On 1st January it arrives moving the monthly basic from approximately 5500 in March 2012 to 9000 in January 2013 with the first change having been made in April. Chiang Mai will then match the minimum wage in Bangkok. It is going to put fierce pressure on employers.

[mamborobert]

I think it will put pressure on some good (and probably all Farang) employers.

There are still a lot of day labourers/workers, caregivers and hospitality staff that do not get the existing amount.

Certainly a lot of hospitality workers receive less on the understanding that they share/receive tips or other commissions.

Its a big increase percentage wise and I really cant see that a lot of costs have gone up (as far as rent/rice/utilities) by anywhere near the same percentage.

I fear its going to make things a lot more difficult for some that will be required to pay the new award while competitors get a pass on any scrutiny/complaints.

Edited November 20, 2012 by mamborobert

[mania]

Sure it will put pressure on employers but really, old wage of

200 a day?

Even at older prices it must have been near impossible to live on.

Even if the worker worked 30 days a month that is 6000 baht

300 a day is not a whole lot better but at least 9000 is in line with what Tesco workers I know make.

Not that I want to see prices go up on things but at the same time 6000 per month even if you work 30 days?

Rough I would imagine.

[jackr]

Its a big increase percentage wise and I really cant see that a lot of costs have gone up (as far as rent/rice/utilities) by anywhere near the same percentage.

I fear its going to make things a lot more difficult for some that will be required to pay the new award while competitors get a pass on any scrutiny/complaints.

Costs have gone up drastically in the last few years (don't know about rent), but I guess a lot of that is down to the state of the world in general. This venture will do nothing but make everyone, bar the rich, less well off. Prices will rise to offset the extra wage, thus those with the new wage will not be any better off (and any superfluous foot-shuffling staff we be shuffling down the road), while those who don't get the rise will be screwed. Along with myriad other ideas, the 'government' is an irresponsible ass for this one.

[trainman34014]

I know two people who own restaurants in the CM area and they already pay their staff more than 300 Baht per day. Furthermore; they need more staff but cannot recruit easily even though they are paying over the odds. As one put it to me ' A lot of Thai's just don't want to work so it's very frustrating'.

[CMX]

Jackr may well have the right of it. Forget minimum wage. The real place to look to assist in a greater degree of equity here is to introduce a progressive property tax - more in value one owns, the greater the tax, improvements included. Funds go to much improved educational system (rural areas too) and food/lodging stipends. (I admit that some forces here might oppose the notion.)

On the other hand, I have no idea how one can measure the statement that 'a lot of Thais don't want to work.' For example, do we mean at 200 baht a day, or 500? What's 'a lot.'??? I mean to say that I observe hard working people all the time (along with those store employees with nothing much to do, to be sure). I don't think that farms run themselves, either.

Edited November 20, 2012 by CMX

[Semper]

I know two people who own restaurants in the CM area and they already pay their staff more than 300 Baht per day. Furthermore; they need more staff but cannot recruit easily even though they are paying over the odds. As one put it to me ' A lot of Thai's just don't want to work so it's very frustrating'.

This is why they employ Burmese workers.

[Petey]

I've been told that many Burmese living in the surrounding rural areas (farm workers, day laborers, etc.) are already holding out for the new minimum wage, declining to accept anything less than 300. Since this is a blanket demand from all workers their Thai employers have no choice but to pay the increase even if not all of the workers will be legally entitled to the new wage under the law.

[Semper]

I've been told that many Burmese living in the surrounding rural areas (farm workers, day laborers, etc.) are already holding out for the new minimum wage, declining to accept anything less than 300. Since this is a blanket demand from all workers their Thai employers have no choice but to pay the increase even if not all of the workers will be legally entitled to the new wage under the law.

Well, who ever told you, was lying/had no idea about the present situation.

[SausageKing]

300baht is BKK rate but Chiang Mai is around 270 baht but we pay over 300 baht for professional Thai staff.

[HaleySabai]

I recently bought a pair of eye-glasses from a shop near the UN Pub. The owner complimented me on buying in Thailand because it is "cheaper" here than my home country. I said "oh,really?....sorry but,your are wrong".....

I used the basic comparison between each countries min.wage and the price of goods sold. At 300baht per.day and a beer from 7/11 costing around 30 baht.

in my country min.wage is 300 baht per.hr / 2000 baht per. day...one beer around 60 baht.

My pair of glasses ended up costing me 6,000 baht, a bit less of what it would have costed me back home.

The eye doctor/shop owner looked at me kinda shocked,then smiled and shrugged it off with the comment "not everybody works for min.wage" .

[Oww]

Sure it will put pressure on employers but really, old wage of

200 a day?

Even at older prices it must have been near impossible to live on.

Even if the worker worked 30 days a month that is 6000 baht

300 a day is not a whole lot better but at least 9000 is in line with what Tesco workers I know make.

Not that I want to see prices go up on things but at the same time 6000 per month even if you work 30 days?

Rough I would imagine.

Compared to what? Vietnam? Indonesia? Myanmar? Phillippines?...or compared to a farang who came from the west and thinks everyone needs to live at the standard he relates to? Thailand is not a developed country. Take a look around.

Minimum wage hike? The government should check back in a year regarding the UNEMPLOYMENT RATE as

businesses shut down because they can't compete with countries in the region which have better educated, better skilled,

better work-ethic and speak better english yet the wages are comparable.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Oww

[SausageKing]

Sorry mate but i have had a company here for over 5 years and i do know whats what salary wise.Sorry if you paid to much for your glasses ?

[mania]

Compared to what?

Reality

[eyecatcher]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

[PlanetX]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

Give them more sheets of brightly colored paper with a promise that their life will get better. Meanwhile 9 new malls are built, the population quadruples, pollution escalates and Burmese workers flood the low paying (black) job market

Those 3K a month places are sure a lot nicer then most of the inner city places I have seen in big cities in the US

Edited November 20, 2012 by PlanetX

[onthedarkside]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

You pay 140 baht/hr = 1,120 baht/day based on an 8 hour day. So if that's 22,400 baht/month for a 20 day month. I suspect you are not doing business in the construction industry. I myself pay a lot more than 300 baht/day and supply housing/food/utilities for general untrained workers. But nothing like you pay, and I am not ashamed. At 500 baht/day I would have to let go my staff go and call it a day. Are we really comparing apples with apples. You must be in the Hi Tech business.

[personchester]

Compared to what?

Reality

The wage increase as stated is fair, but the move from 200 Baht to 300 Baht is a 50% increase which is rather high, and employers will not find this an easy matter to deal with and they should therefore be allowed by the government to have a time span of say three years to achieve the 50% increase to the daily 300 Baht wages, and the government should have set up the following time factor...

Year 1. 240 Baht, year 2. 270 Baht, year 3. 300 Baht. in this way the 50 % wage increase would not cause problems as product and goods prices would then also be increased pro rata over three years in order to achieve the balance.

[mania]

Compared to what?

Reality

The wage increase as stated is fair, but the move from 200 Baht to 300 Baht is a 50% increase which is rather high, and employers will not find this an easy matter to deal with and they should therefore be allowed by the government to have a time span of say three years to achieve the 50% increase to the daily 300 Baht wages, and the government should have set up the following time factor...

Year 1. 240 Baht, year 2. 270 Baht, year 3. 300 Baht. in this way the 50 % wage increase would not cause problems as product and goods prices would then also be increased pro rata over three years in order to achieve the balance.

Understand where your coming from but,

A progressive raise by year to a still as yet low wage does not even take into consideration a yearly inflation rate.

Yes the 50% jump seems large but that is only because it was so long overdue. Still starting & ending at a low spot.

Even at that we are talking again at the new rate a person works 8 hours a day

(And we know Thai's do not get off at 8 hours ) 30 days a month & gets 9000 baht??

I am not comparing things to falang thoughts prices or lifestyles as Oww suggested

but to basic needs here in Thailand for Thai people. All families have similar needs, hopes for their children

etc.

That the labor wages was kept at 200/day for how long is very unfair.

Prices have not remained stagnant as long as wages have.

Nor will they remain stagnant if a low wage is increased to a still low wage over the course

of three years as inflation & prices continue their rise.

Things like oil,fuel etc is tied to everything & affects everyone

Electricity, transportation costs for farmers to move product etc.

Prices rise & have risen. Or more accurately many countries currencies have been devalued

purposely.

This pay raise is yes 50% but still 50% of a crazy low starting point.

So IMO should not be balked at

Edited November 20, 2012 by mania

[Oww]

Reality. Oh, you mean like the dozens or maybe hundreds of retiree 'businesses' set up here just to keep the wife out of trouble,

but are actually just old men pissing out their inheritance. How does a Thai businessman compete with that?

My point was that just raising wages is not enough if you don't improve workers skills comparitively to other countries.

[Honkie]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

What business are you in, Sir ?

[hellodolly]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

Good for you but not every business in Thailand caters to high end tourists.

It will defiantly make it easier to get around in a 7/11 as they in no way will be able to pay the rate and maintain the staff.

Some one mentioned sh/t hole accommodations. That is just there opinion.Probably based on conditions in a country they choose not to live in.

In my opinion it is up to them. When my wife moved her mother into better accommodation I looked at them and told her to get her mother into some thing nicer I would pay the difference. (actually I pay for it all any how) Both the wife and her mother agreed it was a nice place. Well after getting flooded and the roof leaking they agreed to move to a nicer place. It is in my opinion one step above sh/t hole status but they are happy with it so I keep my mouth shut.

It might and probably does sound crazy to many people but

Allow the people in poverty to keep their dignity. Many are very happy with what they have. They do not need some foreigner telling them that what they have is no good.

[hellodolly]

Reality. Oh, you mean like the dozens or maybe hundreds of retiree 'businesses' set up here just to keep the wife out of trouble,

but are actually just old men pissing out their inheritance. How does a Thai businessman compete with that?

My point was that just raising wages is not enough if you don't improve workers skills comparitively to other countries.

Well it sounds nice but how will it fit in to the over all picture.

Raise the workers skills up and you get more production from him and do not need as many employes so you let one or however many go there by adding to unemployment.

We are in Thailand and should not be trying to base are self's on the skill level of other countries I think they must in some ways be OK. It wasn't so long ago that Australia was looking for 50,000 Thai workers.

Thailand has a serious problem and it would seem that no one wants to tackle it. We being foreigners can only start up Small business and pay the higher wages and for the most part all the business we start up are aimed at higher earning people so we can afford to pay more and we are really just a small part of the employers in Thailand anyhow.

The people need to earn more money inflation has to have some slow down on it so as the raise means some thing and the part that most people over look is a way to keep the unemployed rate down as a result of the raise.

I really don't think Thailand is the only country faced with this problem. A half hour walk around some of the streets in any major US city will show you many more street people than we have here in cities of comparable size.

[NeverSure]

When I was young in the US the minimum wage was $1 US. Gasoline was 25 cents. 4 gallons for one dollar. Gold was $35 an ounce. Silver dollars, 1/2 dollars, quarters and dimes were made of real silver. I can tell you what an ounce of silver was worth because I had it in my pocket in the form of dollars, halves, quarters and dimes. Yes it was an alloy to make the coin more durable, but it was still like 90% silver.

Everything was not only fine, but much better. The US was still on the gold standard. Every dollar printed was backed by gold.

Now we've had inflation. The dollar won't buy much gold at $1,700 an ounce. That's a statement of the value of a dollar which is no longer backed by gold but is just flying off the printing presses. People want $1,700 of them for their ounce of gold now.

"A rising tide lifts all boats." Expats will suffer badly. Their income isn't rising but costs will. Someone has to pay this new minimum wage, including those who receive it. What good would it do "the poor" if you tripled the minimum wage but prices also tripled to cover it? The only hope of a ray of sunshine for expats is that maybe, just maybe, inflation in LOS would make the baht worth less against other currencies. Maybe expats could stay even with rising prices. Maybe.

That's all inflation is. The value of the coin of the realm loses value and it takes more of them to buy something.

[jackr]

As with tipping over the odds, folks in business should be cautious about paying 'too much' in a country where everything is face. People put themselves in a category here, so when you pay the wrong wage--perhaps to the degree of what a higher-up position would dictate elsewhere--the receiver may consider themself above their station and become complacent/indifferent to the job at hand. Generous, perhaps, but they tend not to think our way and may even view the employer as senseless. It happens.

[Paagai]

Sorry mate but i have had a company here for over 5 years and i do know whats what salary wise.Sorry if you paid to much for your glasses ?

Sorry mate but if you "know whats what salary wise" you'd know the minimum wage in Chiang Mai province since 1 April 2555 is 251 Bt per day, and not "around 270 Baht" as you stated above. It must be true, it says it on the Employment Department's website: http://www.doe.go.th...ervice/wage.php, new pair of glasses maybe?

I believe that equates to 6526 Bt monthly for daily paid staff working six days per week, and 7530 Bt for monthly paid staff.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Paagai

[eyecatcher]

if you are even paying 300bt a day you should be ashamed of yourselves,..no one deserves to be treated like that. Its nothing; a lot of these people are struggling to pay for 3k a month $h1thole$ accomodation...

happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours, so i have not taken 1bt from business whilst in Thailand.

my vote is to increase it to 500 a day, the current rate for the plebs hanging roadside for labouring jobs

You pay 140 baht/hr = 1,120 baht/day based on an 8 hour day. So if that's 22,400 baht/month for a 20 day month. I suspect you are not doing business in the construction industry. I myself pay a lot more than 300 baht/day and supply housing/food/utilities for general untrained workers. But nothing like you pay, and I am not ashamed. At 500 baht/day I would have to let go my staff go and call it a day. Are we really comparing apples with apples. You must be in the Hi Tech business.

Construction is my business; but not here...but if you read my last 3 or 4 posts you can see exactly what my business is....I pay well becasue I want the best, and they deserve the best

[Oww]

"happy and proud to say my staff are paid 140bt an hour and minimum 15k bt a month....myself, well I came here to enjoy the fruits of my previous labours," "Construction is my business; but not here."

...Another retiree "business" ? I think we're using the term "business" a bit lightly here.

"HOBBY" would be more like it.

A "business" would have that inconvenient little factor called profit/loss.