FTI wants wage hike delayed

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Published: 20 Oct 2012 at 17.35
Online news: Local News

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) wants the government to postpone the increase in the minimum wage to 300 baht a day in 70 provinces until 2015.

The FTI will make the request on Sunday at a meeting of public and private-sector leaders on Koh Samui. The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who will also chair a cabinet meeting on the resort island.

The minimum wage was increased to 300 baht a day in April in the country's seven most developed provinces: Bangkok, Phuket, Samut Prakan, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Sakhon.

The FTI will ask the prime minister to consider delaying until 2015 the wage increase, due to take effect on Jan 1, 2013, for the other 70 provinces.

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chinagirl
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Discussion 14 : 05 Nov 2012 at 22.2114
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I guessed it was time for this subject to return to BP Poll. Government has no idea of the cost of implementing, so why should we know? If you discount foreign workers and look at current pay structures I doubt if it will have any inflationary impact. Might cost a few posters the equivalent of a couple of small beers a week at best. Probably not. To Thailand its all benefit, happier workers = better workers and productivity usually increases. No business (worth keeping) is going to move away and consumers will not pay more for their "must have" accessories. This is still far from a "living wage".
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DONHUAN
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Discussion 13 : 21 Oct 2012 at 22.4613
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This is business 101; if costs of resources are high, consider upgrading/stream line the work processes through automation/computerization in the work place/office; bottom line is to be more productive / efficient. Alternatively, those factories can consider moving to Burma where labor force and land is still very cheap. The government will want to move those cheap and low technology based industries, which had been operating in Thailand for many years, up the value chain to avoid competing with countries like Burma, Vietnam and Cambodia. It’s called maintaining the competitive edge relative to one’s resources. It’s also a blessing in
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spiceman
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Discussion 12 : 21 Oct 2012 at 13.3512
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Pointoffew #11, this is the beauty of the Free Mkt System. No matter how greedy employers are, they still need labor & will have to compete with one another in order to fill up their payrolls by pushing up prevailing wages, to attract good labor with the most productive workers getting paid the most & vice versa. Not only that, employers will have to keep them happy, both with wages & benefits to prevent them form leaving to work for competitors. This is based on Labor Economic Model which is always applicable. Thailand must choose either naturally rising wages with limited foreign labor or falling wages with foreign labor, but not both.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 11 : 21 Oct 2012 at 11.0311
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spiceman, discussion 7, once again you demonstrate to be completely out of touch with your former home country. Relentless GREED is the source of the unsustainable inequality.
Although the official unemployment rate, according to state propaganda, of less than 2% is certainly false, unemployment in Thailand is low (likely less than 4%). That is why labourers from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam etc. get work permits to do unskilled labour Thai people refuse to do, even at the present minimum wage, because Thai do have a choice. If Thailand would expel those foreign labourers, a lot of work would not be done, because of a lack of labourers.
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khunbj
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Discussion 10 : 21 Oct 2012 at 10.2410
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And while we are at it then the Government already lowered the corporate tax drastically .... so the FTI needs both tax cuts and lower wages ? Maybe they need to look at their business model instead.
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ricefield
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Discussion 9 : 21 Oct 2012 at 09.359
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If they floated the wage rates the industries would pay 5bt a day if they thought they could get away with it. Greed by the rich is the sole reason for a government imposed minimum wage increase although they were happy with the Democrat mandated increase of 1Bt a day in most of the country. In the end they have no one to blame but themselves and I have no pity for their bottom line at all. Didn't this same group threaten to leave en mass for greener pastures not long ago; maybe it's time we let them go and rape some other country.
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barmine
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Discussion 8 : 21 Oct 2012 at 07.048
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By requiring a 4th grade education, wouldn't that exclude the 9 and 10 year old children from the pay hike?
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spiceman
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Discussion 7 : 21 Oct 2012 at 00.007
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Wages are too low because the supply of labor is too high. So, the easiest and most natural way to bring up wages is by getting rid of all foreign labor, especially, those from Myanmar, and Cambodia. No minimum wage necessary. Case closed!
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pointoffew
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Discussion 6 : 20 Oct 2012 at 23.276
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The advantage of a redistribution of ill-gotten income, as I advocated before, is obvious: the poorest spend most of their income on consumption, stimulating domestic consumption and economic growth, whereas the richest spend most of their top income on imported goods and foreign investments, at the expense of GDP.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 5 : 20 Oct 2012 at 23.255
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There will always be plenty of false excuses for the super rich to keep enriching themselves. I have explained it before, and will explain it again: if the 2% richest would accept a 20% pay cut, that would be enough to allow the 20% poorest an income at or just above the subsistence level. Sad as it is, of course that will never happen, as long as those who have been in power over the past hundred years remain in power.
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