Former Thai PM slams govt’s miserly 5% minimum wage rise

A day after the Thai government announced a nationwide 5% salary increase the kingdom’s former prime minister condemned it as “not enough.”

The Thai Cabinet yesterday agreed to increase the minimum wage throughout the country by 5%. The highest rate is 354 baht per day in Chon Buri, Rayong, and Phuket while it is 328 baht per day in places such as Yala, Pattani, Narathiwas, Nan, and Udon Thani.

But the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, slammed the miserly 5% increase during his bi-weekly talk show on Clubhouse last night saying that Thailand’s workers should be getting at least 800 baht a day.

“Today the minimum wage of the average Thais should be 800 baht per day so as not to starve the people as the cost of living has risen tremendously.”

The 73 year old former politician insists raising the minimum wage can be achieved without economically crippling the country under a Pheu Thai government.

“This can be done if Pheu Thai government is there for two terms. The first term would be mostly looking at ways of fixing the broken economy and raising the standards of the workforce while the second term would see the rise in minimum wages to 800 baht per day.

“If the government is scared of raising the minimum wages as they are afraid that there would not be enough workforce, then they should rethink. The labour force can comeneighbouringboring countries, while in the future labour-intensiveensive industries could be undertaken by robots.

“Thai workers could be retained to do more skilled jobs.”

Thaksin highlighted the plight of Thailand’s low-paid workers making it known that they are among the lowest paid in the world. A typical Thai operative is paid 41 baht an hour while in Australia it is 493 baht, UK 424 baht, Sweden 418 baht, Germany 374 baht, Japan 302 baht, South Korea 256 baht, and Taiwan 224 baht.

“Thailand’s workforce wages are very different from those of other countries, and this is not enough for them to be able to have a decent life, which in turn causes them to take on debts. We must accelerate the development of the country because the current expenditures have already outpaced revenues considerably. The more you look, the sadder it is.”

The exiled former PM also highlighted the number of people who have registered for government welfare. He said the number of Thai people who have applied for poor card allowances is on the rise. As of yesterday, September 13, about 11.1 million people had registered for the poor card.

“That card should be known as getting people out of being poor, not for the poor.”

The former PM added that the only way to abolish welfare privileges and increase the standard of living for the nation’s workers is by electing a Pheu Thai government next year.

“A move to raise the minimum to that level may create a major stir in the business circles as such a spike in the wages may put many businesses under pressure.

“Thailand needs to move away from the labour-intensive to a more upgraded and service economy and that needs to be a policy priority from the government.”

SOURCE: Thai Enquirer