Cambodia : ‘Beer girls’ underpaid: report

**Mid** · 27-04-2010, 04:58 PM

‘Beer girls’ underpaid: report
Will Baxter
Tuesday, 27 April 2010

A beer seller refills glasses for young men at a beer garden in Phnom Penh. A report has found that beer promotion women in Siem Reap town are underpaid.
Photo by: Sovan Philong

FEMALE beer promotion workers in Siem Reap town earned salaries that covered only half of their living expenses last year, a fact that led some 57 percent to engage in sex work, according to a report released last week by a Siem Reap-based NGO.

The report, co-authored by Ian Lubek, a psychology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, is an updated version of an older report, and draws from interviews with 900 women.

International and domestic beer companies operating in Cambodia offered average monthly incomes of about US$81, but workers, often referred to around the country as “beer girls”, said they needed between US$160 and $209 to cover monthly expenses and support their families, according to the report.

Those women who did engage in sex work to supplement their salaries said they had accepted a standard price of US$25 per session, and participated in 2.5 sessions per month, giving them an additional monthly income of $62.50, the report said.

“Most of the problem is that these women are underpaid. They need a living wage,” Lubek said Monday. “The average beer seller has about 3.5 dependants for whom they are responsible.”

The salaries on offer, he added, place “additional pressure on each woman to bring in extra income”.

“About half of these women feel obliged to sell sex,” he said.

The report, produced for the NGO Siem Reap Citizens for Health, Educational and Social Issues, is titled: “Health, safety and security for Cambodian women beer sellers were substandard in 2009: Urgent actions are still required by all major brewers (AB/INBEV, Carlsberg, HEINEKEN/Asia Pacific Breweries, SAB/Miller, Guinness, San Miguel, Bavaria, Asahi, etc.)”.

Lack of education

Women interviewed for the report said they had limited access to HIV/AIDS treatment and sex-education programmes, and the report recommends that basic health and sex education be provided to beer sellers on their first day of work.

Lubek said that 37 percent of beer sellers do not receive health training for more than a year after they begin work, and that some never do. He added that most reported consuming an average of 1.5 litres of beer per night.

“Unless they know about the dangers of alcohol and unsafe sex, in a country with a high rate of HIV infection, this puts them at greater risk,” he said.

In 2006, Heineken International, Carlsberg A/S, Guinness and Co, Asia Pacific Breweries, Cambodia Brewery Ltd and Cambrew Ltd formed the organisation Beer Selling Industry Cambodia (BSIC), “with the objective of improving the health, safety and working conditions of beer promoters by setting industry standards,” according to its website.

A spokesman for the Heineken-affiliated Cambodia Brewery Ltd, 80 percent of which is owned by Asia Pacific Breweries, declined to comment on Monday. Representatives of Cambrew Ltd, of which Carlsberg has a majority stake, could not be reached for comment.

phnompenhpost.com

**dirtydog** · 27-04-2010, 05:04 PM

Just a thought, they could try a different career other than what is considered a career for upcoming whores.

**Gerbil** · 27-04-2010, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mid

participated in 2.5 sessions per month

Wouldn't like to be one of the poor buggers who only gets a 'half session'

**good2bhappy** · 27-04-2010, 05:23 PM

$25 a time

**wayne78** · 27-04-2010, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Just a thought, they could try a different career other than what is considered a career for upcoming whores.

That's not very nice Dirty Dog. With all your bar reviews around Thailand, I would have thought you would have some compassion for these ladies.

**dirtydog** · 27-04-2010, 05:33 PM

^ I certainly do have a lot of compassion for them, but not at 25 bucks a go I don't.

JoeMoer · 27-04-2010, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Originally Posted by Mid

participated in 2.5 sessions per month

Wouldn't like to be one of the poor buggers who only gets a 'half session'

**BobR** · 27-04-2010, 05:36 PM

So if Cambodian ho's want to make a livable wage, we'll have to take our business to China. Cambodia will no longer globally competitive in the ho market?

Actually it makes sense, American and British ho's overpriced themselves years ago, so I am not mongering here, I'm globally outsourcing my needs to a more competitive market.

**the dogcatcher** · 27-04-2010, 05:37 PM

I got half a session.
Didn't swallow.

**PaddyGreen** · 27-04-2010, 05:39 PM

Of course the punters could paymore and the whores wouldn't need to serve but where better than to find horny idiots
In Uk and Oz where tipping is rare you queue for your ale and pay a one of bar fine called marriage aka ringpull girls.I don't see this much different to LOS beer girls

In USA France and other underdeveloped beer nations tipping obsequiousness and whoredom are normal the girls may dream that Helmut Gazza or Larrikan Willy may have a supply of something work sucking.

**wayne78** · 27-04-2010, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

^ I certainly do have a lot of compassion for them, but not at 25 bucks a go I don't.

Seems to be the going rate there from all accounts.

$25 US buys a lot in rural Cambodia. Some of these girls and the people they support can be fed on that for a month.......I kid you not.

**The Muffinman** · 27-04-2010, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by the dogcatcher

I got half a session.
Didn't swallow.

In Cambo you got the full session.

You're lucky you got a bj at all, not that common there.

**wayne78** · 27-04-2010, 06:35 PM

"Yum yum", I think the Viet girls in PP call it.

**Beadle** · 27-04-2010, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by The Muffinman

You're lucky you got a bj at all, not that common there

Near enough every bird I have shagged in Cambo has given me a BJ.

Do you have a dirty penis? Warts?

**Dreadlord** · 27-04-2010, 08:14 PM

Considering that the numbnuts upstairs hires ho's everyweek and pays about US $250 each...imagine how those girls there would live on that...

And yes, he does spend that much a month. I am just waiting for one of them to get pissed, start making a scene and me calling the cops at 2am because the fooker didn't pay.

**Chairman Mao** · 27-04-2010, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Just a thought, they could try a different career other than what is considered a career for upcoming whores.

Labouring?
Drug dealing?

Not really that many options for penniless, uneducated, young cambodian girls who have extended families to take care of.

**Tom Sawyer** · 27-04-2010, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by Mid

‘
International and domestic beer companies operating in Cambodia offered average monthly incomes of about US$81, but workers, often referred to around the country as “beer girls”, said they needed between US$160 and $209 to cover monthly expenses and support their families, according to the report.

Those women who did engage in sex work to supplement their salaries said they had accepted a standard price of US$25 per session, and participated in 2.5 sessions per month, giving them an additional monthly income of $62.50, the report said.

“Most of the problem is that these women are underpaid. They need a living wage,” Lubek said Monday. “The average beer seller has about 3.5 dependants for whom they are responsible.”

Let's examine that a bit closer

They earn 81 USD per month nearly 4 USD per day - (2500 THB/mo)
But the average wage in Cambo for a high school graduate with post-secondary training is certainly not much more than that - maybe 5 USD per day.

So if they only shag three times per month and have a tolal income of nearly 150 USD/mo (nearly 5,000 THB/mo) that's not bad for such a shit hole. In Bangkok, a much more developed place than Cambo, the average wage is only slightly more than that - around 6,000 - 8,000 Baht.

Funny how this guy goes out of his way to do yet another report on poor women trapped in a cycle of poverty and prostitution "vice" in the cruel entertainment world of men's pleasures. Does an office worker in Cambo also feel she should go on the game for the same reason since she's also earning only 80 USD per month? Only beer promotion girls? What about waitresses in a restaurant? Or hotel cleaning staff?

No he wants to talk about the evils of sex and booze.

**dirk diggler** · 27-04-2010, 09:07 PM

If you want to pay a whoor for a service she is offering to provide, which I don't, would it not be a bit pathetic to give a flying fuck about her financial situation and hungry child count? Save the sob stories Love, I had a funny feeling your mother was sick. You may go now.

**Tom Sawyer** · 27-04-2010, 09:08 PM

^
Besides - the Tiger Beer Girls in Thailand are smokin hot compared with their plainer Cambo cousins..

**Travelmate** · 27-04-2010, 09:33 PM

Any pics of the Cambo girls?

**wefearourdespot** · 27-04-2010, 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by Mid

International and domestic beer companies operating in Cambodia offered average monthly incomes of about US$81, but workers, often referred to around the country as “beer girls”, said they needed between US$160 and $209 to cover monthly expenses and support their families, according to the report.

I wonder what should the textile workers say with their 50$ monthly salary.

**wefearourdespot** · 27-04-2010, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by good2bhappy

$25 a time

plain outrageous. Should be 10-15 $ for barang at most (Cambo men pay 2-5 $)

**Lorenzo** · 27-04-2010, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mid

FEMALE beer promotion workers in Siem Reap town earned salaries that covered only half of their living expenses last year, a fact that led some 57 percent to engage in sex work, according to a report released last week by a Siem Reap-based NGO.

nonsense to help the NGO justify themselves

**Chairman Mao** · 27-04-2010, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

If you want to pay a whoor for a service she is offering to provide, which I don't, would it not be a bit pathetic to give a flying fuck about her financial situation and hungry child count? Save the sob stories Love, I had a funny feeling your mother was sick. You may go now.

Some people need the GFE.

**dirk diggler** · 27-04-2010, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by wefearourdespot

Originally Posted by good2bhappy

$25 a time

plain outrageous. Should be 10-15 $ for barang at most (Cambo men pay 2-5 $)

So you're down to your last 5 bucks, do you:

a) get a beer for the road, a tuk-tuk and a butt-ugly whore,

b) a tuk-tuk and an average whore, or

c) a tidy whore and walk?

Depends on the weather and how far your gaff is, right?

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