For the past few months I've been doing a little part-time work at a large recruitment company. My job involves proof-reading resumes and interviewing job applicants for 5-10 minutes to ascertain their level of English. With the better applicants, we'll chat about why they want to leave their current position, what their long-term objectives are and what kind of job they're looking for, etc. It's given me a chance to meet a lot of Thai people from all walks of life (I've probably interviewed a thousand people up to now) and of course the opportunity to find out what Thais are earning and what kind of salaries they are aiming at when they move on to the next job. It's been a real eye-opener. It's made me realise just how far behind the 30,000 baht a month teacher has been left. In the early 90's, a 30,000 baht salary more or less held it's own. It wasn't a fortune, it wasn't something you'd brag about but you never felt that The Thais were making excessively more than you did. But times have changed.
Probably 95% of the people I interview have a degree or two. 60% are female, 40% are male and I would say 50% are under 30 with those between 30 and 40 making up another 40-45%. Only a very small percentage are over 40 it seems.
At the bottom of the ladder, you have call center staff. A large bank may be looking for a hundred people to sell credit cards and loans over the phone. This is often a new graduate's first position as they get a foot on the work ladder so the average age is about 22 or 23. This job pays in the region of 12,000 baht a month with the opportunity to bump it up to about 17,000 baht with commission.
What about the higher earners?
Engineers in their 20's with often very little work experience are earning about 40-60,000 a month. Good accounting people are on about the same. Even accounting women in their 20s with the personality of a dud battery are earning 30K. Sales managers are earning 50,000 as a minimum, often much more. For those who work in the finance sector, the sky's the limit. Most are earning in excess of 50-60K and I interviewed a 32-year-old guy this week who was finance manager for a small retail chain and he was currently taking home 192K a month - AND he was looking for a job with more money and benefits.
Human resource at manager level for a decent sized company, you can virtually name your price. I haven't seen one earning less than 100K.
It's opened my eyes because I rather naively thought that all professional Thais at managerial level earned about 30-40K a month and teachers were almost but perhaps not quite on the same level.
So this is why those ads you see for 'experience the magic of Thailand' and include a teaching job as part of the package, and say that you will be earning
four times the salary of a local really get on my wick.
How much are Thais earning? - Ajarn Forum - Living and Teaching In Thailand
29-08-2008, 02:23 PM
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