Bravo I hear you say, but wait a minute while I tell you what this raise actually involves. You see the new minimum wage, in the highest paying province of the 64 provinces that are affected, will change from 173 to 181Baht. Now that's £3.41 or $5.48 for a days toil and I do mean toil in Thailand.
So what will 181 Baht buy you here, well you could get almost three bottles of beer, 3 litres of milk or 5 loafs of bread at your local Tesco but of course folk on the minimum wage don't have the luxury of using supermarkets even for their basic needs. Since a litre of petrol for the motorcycle will set them back 27 Baht, a take-away meal about 30 baht which doesn't leave very much to cover even their most basic requirements. Of course somehow they get by, working in family units everyone contributing what they can, working when work is available.
The beautiful young girl who serves you in a Western fast food chain probably considers herself lucky, working in an air-conditioned unit, getting a free meal and maybe earning 25 Baht an hour + tips for an 8 hour shift.
You might of course offer that the cost of living is lower in Thailand, yes it is, but then again everything is relative. Likewise you might point out that you don't see many homeless Thai people, that most seem to have a roof over their heads. This is true but then again would you fancy your roof being made from dried grasses that is the home to numerous creepy-crawlies or made from galvanised sheets that frequently leak when its raining.
So when the Thai government announces a minimum wage increase that is actually a low as 1 baht in some provinces I don't fancy there will be many of the locals out in the street dancing. Do you?
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5 comments:
The sad fact is that for the vast majority of honest hard working Thai's this change will probably be minimal, if given at all, as their employers will find some way of reducing hours or benefits to keep the 'status quo'. However it is likely they will use the higher minimal wage as an excuse for a price rise of some form or other.
Definitely not much of an increase. Even though the minimum wage has risen most Thai's I've met doing day labor or working for themselves in some capacity seem to site 200 baht a day as normal earnings...but they are off the grid and not paying taxes like a McDonalds employee.
I think the main reason you don't see Homeless Thai people ( the vast majority of homeless and beggars are foreigners) is because the huge sense of community and family. Everyone works together to keep the family going.
I'll give the Thai's this much...minimum wages are low but the government at least does what it can to make sure Thai jobs stay Thai by making it very hard for foreigners to get legitimate jobs in Thailand.
Good thing too or I'd imagine we would see a lot of expats working in fast food joints in Pattaya.
@Lloyd yes I am expecting something to go up.
@Talen good tradesmen here will cost 200-300 Baht a day, a Thai friend has a team working on his house @ 1000Baht for three men for a day and they are top class craftsmen.
Mike any rise is good however small but...in the Isaan villages minimum wages are ignored and they work for the sum offered or someone else will. I think I am right in saying the new minimum hourly rate wouldn't incur any tax charges anyway and so the 100 to 140 baht offered to work the rice fields is exactly that. Survival is the name of the game.
@Martyn I agree, many local folk here will work for whatever is offered if it means work.
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