The government must reconsider its controversial plan to increase the daily minimum wage to 400 baht nationwide as much of the money would go to migrant workers rather than help boost the domestic economy, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Remittances worth around 100 billion baht are made by migrant workers from neighbouring countries to their families back home every year.
This money comes from their earnings, so if the authorities push ahead with the wage hike, Thailand is not likely to enjoy the full benefit of the policy, said Wiwat Hemmondharop, vice-chairman of the FTI.
"Migrant workers tend to spend only half their wage here and send the rest to their families. This means a higher wage would support the GDP of neighbouring countries," he said.
Entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector currently pay highly-skilled workers almost 700-900 baht a day. If the daily minimum rate changes, there are fears the new wage for highly-skilled workers would exceed 1,000 baht per day for workers in some industries, said Mr Wiwat.
Thailand is a destination country for 2.6-3 million workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Many of them do dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs, which are usually not carried out by Thai workers.
The federation has restated its call to the government to base any wage rise on workers' skills and the economy of each province as well as launch measures to restore the Thai economy, which is struggling to deal with many challenges, including weak purchasing power and factors relating to geopolitical conflicts.
"Around 50% of FTI members need better access to financial sources and more help from state economic measures," said Apichit Prasoprat, vice-chairman of the FTI, adding there are around 15,000 companies which are members of the federation.