Thread: Minimum wage to increase by April 2011

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

From now on cheap labour will no longer exist in Thailand

Vietnam (and to a lesser extent, Cambodia & Laos) will be rubbing their hands in glee hearing that.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Citing a study by the International Labour Organisation, he said the daily minimum wage should be Bt441

Ok, they truly are insane.

Originally Posted by Sailing into trouble

If that means that your choice of night partners diminishes as more Thais find alternatives to Farang dick to make a living; tough tity

There is that Elephant in the room

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by LooseBowels

I would like to see the coalition tax the very same falang nutters till the pips squeek and give it to those same "peasants"

better idea, kick out the farang keenok like yourself who are on a 30,000 THB monthly budget and don't contribute anything to the country materially

Bit harsh! Even if he is not contributing "materially" as you put it. He is still spending his 30,000 bt a month IN Thailand.
How do you know what he spends anyway? Even if you are correct. This is much more than the average tourist spends on their visit to Los. It all contributes!

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

From now on cheap labour will no longer exist in Thailand

Vietnam (and to a lesser extent, Cambodia & Laos) will be rubbing their hands in glee hearing that.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Citing a study by the International Labour Organisation, he said the daily minimum wage should be Bt441

Ok, they truly are insane.

Hate to argue that point Gerbs, at the current rate of inflation that is still too low. Single mothers out east stuggle with 150-200 a day. That buys you peanuts

[quote=StrontiumDog;1806665]Bangkok Post : Industry opposes B300 daily wage


Industry opposes B300 daily wage

That would cut into the Executives annual bonuses, who is kidding who ?

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

"From now on cheap labour will no longer exist in Thailand, and with this policy, skills of workers will be upgraded and a policy to make only high-quality products adopted, to accommodate a party policy - Year 2020,"

Surely he's joking? How will this be achieved? Where is the plan?
Builders here can't even read a plan, many electricians have no proper training, there's plenty of seamstresses but few who can work of patterns.

Try teaching these ppl anything, few want to learn, especially the men.

Originally Posted by Carrabow

That would cut into the Executives annual bonuses, who is kidding who ?

Exactlty!

As this proposal only applies to companies who employ more than 50 employees it simply means the greedy employers will make less profit. Of course many will shout "International Corporates will pull out and move to other countries" and yes that could happen just like it has in Europe.

So for example Nokia, Siemens etc. etc. can't afford to pay 300 Baht for a 12 hour shift?

Yes exactly who is kidding who?

Originally Posted by The Bold Rodney

So for example Nokia, Siemens etc. etc. can't afford to pay 300 Baht for a 12 hour shift?

of course they can, it's simply political

Bold Rodney et al..... Ah, but business is business and profit is the goal....you are being somewhat naive if you think businesses give a damn about anything else.

I would think a lot of the transnationals are already paying over B300, as they need to train they workers to stay and do this thru higher wages, better conditions.

Originally Posted by Buksida

I would think a lot of the transnationals are already paying over B300, as they need to train they workers to stay and do this thru higher wages, better conditions.

a point I made earlier, many of those manufacturers are fighting already on hiring more employees they have difficulty to find, they can't get away with less 300 THB

big manufacturers are already paying 8,000 THB a month for a factory worker, sometimes more if more qualified

on 22 days, that's more than 300 THB per day, and of course there is overtime that they will pay

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Bold Rodney et al..... Ah, but business is business and profit is the goal....you are being somewhat naive if you think businesses give a damn about anything else.

I'd agree with 100% with what you say and even more so here where life is cheap and the masses are unemployed and are desperate to feed their kids. Add to your post the majority politicians please!

Increase the skill level and wages will rise automatically.

Originally Posted by Buksida

Increase the skill level and wages will rise automatically.

Before you attempt to increase manufacturing skill levels, providing all young people with a sound, solid even basic education here would be extremely beneficial.

Originally Posted by The Bold Rodney

Originally Posted by Buksida

Increase the skill level and wages will rise automatically.

Before you attempt to increase manufacturing skill levels, providing all young people with a sound, solid even basic education here would be extremely beneficial.

Not about to happen though Is it?

Originally Posted by Buksida

Not about to happen though Is it?

Only time will tell...but reducing corruption here would be a good start and there are such plans which one hopes can only help everyone.

It's easy to keep knocking Thais and Thailand but we're all here for a reason whether, it's the weather, food or pussy it's all better than the UK in my book!

Some posters on here (we know who) are bitter and twisted for reasons unknown to me but slagging off the Thais and Thailand at every oportunity isn't going to make their lives any better!

^ you seem to be drifting off the subject. Improving skills doesn't need to be as complicated as you say.

For example learning to read a basic plan is very easy, then moving onto more difficult plans can be done gradually at the workplace.

Originally Posted by Buksida

you seem to be drifting off the subject. Improving skills doesn't need to be as complicated as you say.

Not at all and if you knew the level of education here of factory workers in Bangkok for example you would understand.

Originally Posted by Buksida

For example learning to read a basic plan is very easy, then moving onto more difficult plans can be done gradually at the workplace.

If they could actually read, write and understand basic maths then I'd agree with you, unfortunately many of them can't.

They are taught basic assembly tasks by example but as for reading and understanding techinical drawings let alone solving technical issues, forget it!

The reason so many mundane manufacturing tasks are carried out in the East is that not only is labour cheap Westeners with degrees (there are too many) all want to be chiefs not indians.

You're correct on one point many high tech factory employees in Bangkok earn above the proposed 300 Baht minimum wage but remember they work 12 hour shifts six days a week. So roughly lets assume they earn around 8,000 - 10,000 a month? a good wage for many but not quite as good as selling pussy to farangs assuming they have a pussy of course?

Rodney, you have no idea what your talking about.

Check the literacy rates, they are not that low. Basic maths is understood by most.

Originally Posted by Buksida

Rodney, you have no idea what your talking about.

Check the literacy rates, they are not that low. Basic maths is understood by most.

The why do they use a calculator in shops and bars to calculate the change from a 100 baht note for a 80 baht bottle of beer?

Originally Posted by teddy

Originally Posted by Buksida

Rodney, you have no idea what your talking about.

Check the literacy rates, they are not that low. Basic maths is understood by most.

The why do they use a calculator in shops and bars to calculate the change from a 100 baht note for a 80 baht bottle of beer?

Because they're lazy I guess, as I've seen it done by grads.

Building workers don't have calcs and do OK. But can't read plans, to save face they pretend it's not necessary

Putting populist pledges into action may bankrupt us all

EDITORIAL

Putting populist pledges into action may bankrupt us all

By The Nation
Published on July 7, 2011

The Pheu Thai Party needs to reconsider its promised billion-baht give-aways

The prospective Pheu Thai-led coalition government will now have to reconsider carefully how to implement the pledges it gave to voters during the election campaign.

The Pheu Thai Party lured voters with a raft of policies it promised to implement should it gain power. However, some of those policies may squander taxpayers' money, failing to boost the capacity of the country's human capital and create sustainable wealth for its people.

Pheu Thai is a champion of populist policies, and many voted for the party because they wanted to benefit from such policies. However, when populism is put into action, the country's fiscal health can suffer through the massive budget spending needed to finance give-away programmes.

Pheu Thai ran a campaign full of policies aimed at catching the voter's eye. Included were pledges to raise the national minimum wage to Bt300 per day, offer higher prices to farmers for their rice crops, provide tablet computers to all primary schools, cap mass-transit train fares at Bt20, and ensure college graduates receive support of Bt15,000 per month.

While the party has yet to spell out how it will implement these projects, there are already concerns that some of these policies could be a waste of taxpayers' money, leading to more damage than benefits.

Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's recently warned of the dangers. "Implementing many of these policies without having proper appropriation of the revenues would adversely affect the country's fiscal position," said Takahira Ogawa, a credit analyst for the agency.

Measures undertaken by the last government over several years to counter the global recession and implement populist policies have already eroded Thailand's fiscal strength, he was quoted as saying.
"Further significant erosion could be detrimental to the current ratings," Ogawa cautioned.

For instance, Pheu Thai may have to reconsider its pledge to distribute computers to each primary school student. The "one tablet per child" programme would amount to 800,000 computers at a cost of about Bt4 billion. But it remains to be seen how this project would contribute to the children's development - especially those living in rural areas with no broadband coverage.

The pledge to raise the minimum wage to Bt300 in 90 days might also lead to uncontrollable inflation. It is crucial that the minimum wage level be acceptable to both employers and workers so as to ensure it is practical and conducive to the business environment. A rate set too high would discourage factories from hiring workers, causing high inflation and creating potential job losses as factories turned to outsourcing.

The rice-pledging programme is also likely to cost more than Bt100 billion. And yet, the programme would not benefit poorer farmers, as they lack the facilities to store and dehydrate rice as required by the pledging programme. The major beneficiary would in fact likely be the rice millers.

Populist policies are not necessarily bad, but they must be implemented only according to necessity, as short-lived programmes to ease the suffering of people and complement other sustainable policies.

It would be unfortunate if political parties used full-blown populist policies so as to inflate the economy's growth figures in the short run, without considering the consequences to the country in the longer term.

Instead, the government has a duty to focus on policies to boost Thailand's capacity and competitiveness in the long term. Populist policies also instil a perception that the government will provide people with economic security, which discourages self-reliance in favour of reliance on hand-outs.

In addition, such policies naturally attract corruption because of the huge sums of taxpayers' money involved.

A country will fail to develop if its government places a higher priority on populist policies than on a sustainable economic platform to boost the country's long-term competitiveness. Although these give-aways may seem like an essential element of economic strategy because voters have become addicted to them, the Pheu Thai Party-led government must reconsider how to implement them in the best interests of the people. Otherwise, we could all be bankrupted altogether.