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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.

Butterfly

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

The Bold Rodney

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!

teddy

If you drive along the unnamed road that links Chiang Si Phom corner with the superhighway in Chiang Mai in the morning, you'll see hundreds of Tai Yai illegal labourers standing by the side of the road waiting to be collected and used as casual labour. The numbers have increased significantly over the last few years. I guess they have replaced Thai workers on the minimum daily rate.

To think that raising operating costs of Thai businesses by at least 35% will lead to a workers utopian paradise is naive. Jobs are going to flood out of Thailand and as long as there is uncertainty over a minimum wage policy of 300 baht per day, investment will dry up.

It might be tough for Thais to live on 7K baht per month but they are used to it. Take away the 7K because they have no jobs will be worse. If they are really desperate, they will find a dumb farang to marry one of their lazy, whoring and gambling-addicted skanky daughters. If they weren't lazy, incompetent, poorly-educated and corrupt, then they might be able to produce a wealth factory such as Singapore. That isn't going to happen though within the life span of our universe.

It's horses for courses: Thais have been born to be peasants and Chinese have been born to exploit them. I'd rather be with the Chinese.

Buksida

Increase the skill level and wages will rise automatically.

The Bold Rodney

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

Buksida

Not about to happen though Is it?

The Bold Rodney

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!

Buksida

^ 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.

The Bold Rodney

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

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?

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.

StrontiumDog

Thai-ASEAN News Network

Govt to Raise Minimum Wage for Civil Servants, State Firm Employees in October

UPDATE : 7 July 2011

The Pheu Thai-led government is looking to raise the monthly salary for civil servants and employees of state enterprises, starting from October.

Pheu Thai Party Secretary-General Jarupong Ruangsuwan, also serving as a member of the party's economic team, said the new government expects to start increasing the minimum salary to 15,000 baht per month for civil servants and state-enterprise employees in October.

As for an increase to the minimum wage rate, he said the policy will be put into effect once the government has reached a conclusion with the private sector and prepared measures to assist companies in managing the higher payroll, such as a cut to the business income tax and promotion of exports to emerging markets.

Jarupong noted that the plan to increase the minimum wage to 300 baht a day aims to help low-income earners support themselves. He reaffirmed that the same rate will apply to all provinces.

The minimum wage increase is expected to be implemented next year.

The Pheu Thai secretary-general said the International Labor Organization noted that an appropriate wage should allow an individual to cover basic expenses for all family members. He added that worker skills must be improved, and the production of high-value products must be promoted in order to correspond with higher wages and the economic development plan in 2020.

__________________
"Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar

teddy

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?

Buksida

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

StrontiumDog

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.

StrontiumDog

^The Nation being somewhat dramatic...but never mind.

Personally I don't think all of the populist policies will make it.

The Dem's sent off their raise in the minimum wage to a committee, which duly whittled it down.

It is a neat way of reneging on your promise without being seen to do so.

Worked for them! Well, kind of, they did lose the election but I'm sure other factors were more influential.

Lets see what Pheu Thai does...

koman

About a year ago I needed to buy a load of potting soil. The wife and I arrive at a big garden center and see that they have a special deal; six bags of potting soil for 100 Thb. Excellent; so we tell them we need 40 bags...how much? 800 Thb they say. Wait a minute I say. You are charging me more per bag for buying 40 bags than if I only buy six? Now this causes consternation like you would hardly believe. We end up standing in the hot son with no less than four "managers" all with calculators. Finally the most senior manager says in triumph...OK we can discount for you...750 Thb for 40. But that's still more expensive I say.....dear me.

So then I have an idea. OK I say; just give me 6 bags for 100 baht. They summon a non-management type and had him load the six bags into my truck and I hand over 100 Thb...then I say OK now give me six more...I hand over another 100Thb....we did this 7 times and I paid a total of 700 baht.

We drove off with 42 bags of soil while the 4 managers, still standing out in the hot sun furiously calculating away and trying to figure out how that farang managed to rip them off like that....

Butterfly

awesome story, yes, technical details are not their strong

Buksida

PT will start giving bureaucrats 15k, but the poorest ppl will have to wait until next year to get less than half that? Anything could happen between then and now, especially considering they are talking to employers first.


Was this really a pledge? If so looks like they're going back on it already.

crippen

Round here,they use a calculator so they can show the amount to the thick farang who doesn't understand Thai. Don't do for the Thais though.

StrontiumDog

Thai-ASEAN News Network



Southern Trade Union Worried about Wage Hike

UPDATE : 8 July 2011

A southern trade union is urging the government to run its wage policies with caution, given they could pose a severe threat to internal businesses.

Chief adviser of the Federation of Southern Industries Thawee Piyapathana said the push for a minimum-wage increase to 300 baht per day and the entry salary of a new bachelor graduate at 15,000 baht per month will do more harm than good if other factors are not considered.

Thawee said that business operators in the country will not be able to bear increased costs, while small and medium entrepreneurs could shut down their operations.


He suggested that the rise covers 60 percent of workers who rely on minimum wage.

The chief adviser then urged the new government to place importance on the country’s economic and business conditions before putting its economic policies in place, as they will be the group hardest hit by the government’s wage policies.

StrontiumDog

Thai-ASEAN News Network



Food Industry Prepares for Minimum Wage Hike

UPDATE : 8 July 2011

The food industry believes the new government's minimum wage hike will have a serious impact on production costs, but feels it will also help stimulate consumer spending, providing the political climate is stable.

The private sector has continually voiced opposition against the new government's minimum wage hike to 300 baht per day, including Thailand Restaurant News Magazine manager and organizer of the Thailand International Restaurant and Bar exhibition Chattaporn Yolao.


She said she has been closely monitoring the new government's wage policy, and if it is passed business operators will be deeply troubled.

She has urged the government to find solutions for the operators.

Regarding this year's growth in the food industry, factors such as a change in consumer behavior, with many people eating out, as well as political stability have contributed to an increase in consumer spending.

A 15 percent growth is expected this year.

The Thailand Restaurant News Magazine is cooperating with Impact Exhibition Management to hold the 2011 Thailand International Restaurant and Bar exhibition, showcasing food and drink products from around the globe.

The exhibition kicked off yesterday and will continue until Saturday at Muang Thong Thani's Impact Terminal 2.

Bangyai

Some interesting comments on the minimum wage in this article :

BoT welcomes peaceful election



The peaceful election and the acceptance of poll results by leaders of both Pheu Thai and Democrat parties are positive factors in ensuring Thailand's international credit rating, Bank of Thailand (BoT) goverrnor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on Friday.
Mr Prasarn said the country’s debt repayment ability will also be taken into account by credit rating firms.

He said if the populist policies of the incoming government do not cause a heavy fiscal burden it would also be a positive factor. The alternative would be a negative factor.

The central bank chief said he will have to wait for details of the policies on the end to the state levy on some fuels, the increase in the daily minimum wage and the fixing of a 15,000 baht salary for bachelor degree graduates starting government jobs before making further judgement of whether they would cause inflation or increase the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product.
Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul

Mr Prasarn refused to comment on reports that the Pheu Thai-led coalition government might interfere in foreign exchange policy, saying any comment he made could affect the exchange rate.

He said risk factors that could hurt the economy in the second half of the year are inflation, rising prices of oil and food, the fragile global economic recovery, particularly in the US, and the debt crisis in Europe.

The BoT governor said the bank maintained its economic growth projection for this year at 4.1 per cent.

Islamic Bank of Thailand (Ibank) president Theerasak Suwannayos said the Pheu Thai's 300 baht daily minimum daily wage policy will not hurt small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

At today's seminar on "Ibank: New form of Financial Institution for SMEs", Mr Theerasak said that before raising the daily wage to 300 baht related procedures and conditions were needed.

Workers eligible for the new wage rate must be trained to the level of skilled labour.

"In the past, we only talked about GDP growth and forgot to think of income distribution. This has led to a problem of economic inequality because the GDP has been growing but people are still poor," he said.

The Ibank president said that this was because the GDP growth occurred only in the industrial sector and the money had not reached the people’s hands.

He said the labour cost accounted for only 10 per cent of total production costs and if it werer increased it would not have much effect on business.

Of much more concern is the cost of raw materials, which account for 60 per cent of total cost, he added.

Pheu Thai's nominee for prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said her party is taking into consideration the impact on all sides in finalising its economic policies.

Many people, both supporters and critics, have questioned Pheu Thai's economic policies heralded during its election campaign.

Ms Yingluck said her party might have been talking about ways to lower the cost of living during the electioneering, but it must clearly explain sources of revenue as well.

"To drive our economic policies, we must not be rash and the impact on all sides must be taken into account," said the 44-year-old businesswoman-turned-politician.

Bangkok Post : BoT welcomes peaceful election

StrontiumDog

New Thai Prime Minister Promises to Double Minimum Wage | Southeast Asia | English

July 08, 2011

New Thai Prime Minister Promises to Double Minimum Wage

Ron Corben
Bangkok

Thailand’s Prime Minister-elect, Yingluck Shinawatra, says the country’s new government will press ahead with election promises to double the minimum wage despite fears that the move will trigger inflation.

Yingluck says before the policy is implemented, she will hold talks with both business and labor. Speaking at a news conference, she said the government would gradually implement the policy and ease the impact on businesses through corporate tax rate cuts.

“The policy of the minimum wage we will do at the same time as reducing the corporate tax from 30 percent to 23 percent," the prime minister said. "But we have to sit down and discuss with all the business [sector]. So I won’t be launching or implementing ...concerning the impact so we have to sit down and gradually see how we can find a solution together.”

Campaign promises

The move to double the minimum wage to $10 a day (300 baht) was one of several populist election promises made by the Pheu Thai Party ahead of the elections. Pheu Thai won a landslide victory over the governing Democrat Party on Sunday and is preparing to form 300 seat coalition government in the 500 member parliament.

Thai labor groups say they have been assured the incoming government will go ahead with the increase in minimum wages.

Chalee Loisung, chair of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, says the government should implement the policy as soon as taking office. But he also said the government should avoid adverse impacts on the Thai economy.

Chalee said the government has told labor groups it stands by a promise to raise the minimum wage, which will help people have a higher standard of living. But he said while household incomes will rise, employers may also need assistance.

Positive feedback

Thavee Techatheerawat, head of the Thai Trade Union Congress, backed the government’s promises of higher wages, but said the ultimate negotiations will depend on who becomes labor minister.

He says the government has repeatedly said "we can do it" but labor groups will have to wait and see who will be appointed as labor minister and then the trade unions can negotiate.
Thai and foreign businesses have been more wary of the minimum wage increase because of the cost to their payroll and how it could lead to more inflation.

Nandor von der Luehe, chair of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce, said the wage increases were widely cited by campaigning politicians, but can be achieved only with productivity improvements.

“All the [political] parties came out to increase the minimum wage. To increase the minimum wage is fine as long as you increase productivity. But if you only increase minimum wage without increasing productivity it does not work,” von der Luehe said.

The Pheu Thai-led government is also planning to follow through on pledges to increase funding for rural development programs. Economists have warned against using debt to fund generous spending programs that are aimed at boosting growth

Rural Surin

I believe some like to wade into stereotypical pools. Automatically conditioned to presume that the everyday average labourer, city slicker or country bumpkin, attains half-wittery. Far from reality. A reasonable moderate level of literacy and competency is the norm amongst the last couple of generations.