A large majority of government officials and state enterprise employees are in debt and agree with the government's policy to have the monthly salary for bachelor's degree graduates start from 25,000 baht, according to a survey by the National Institute for Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted on Sept 19-21 by telephone interviews with 1,310 employees in government offices and state enterprises aged 18 and over of various levels of education and incomes throughout the country to compile their opinions on salaries for state officials.
Asked whether their salary (excluding extra payments legally acquired) is sufficient to cover their expenses and savings, 44.81% of the respondents said it is not enough, neither for their expenses nor savings; 28.32% said it is enough for both expenses and savings; and 26.87% said it is enough for expenses, but not for savings.
Asked whether they have debts from borrowing money, 44.35% said "yes", from financial institutions; 43.36% said "yes", from savings cooperatives; and 3.66% said they borrowed from non-formal lenders (including friends and relatives). The rest, 25.57%, said they had no debts.
Asked about the government's plan to pay state officials twice a month, 71.30% totally disagreed while another 11.83% were in moderate disagreement. On the other side, 8.32% completely agreed with it and 7.71% were in moderate agreement. The rest, 0.84%, did not know or were not interested.
On the government's policy to mandate salaries for bachelor's degree graduates to start from 25,000 baht per month, 57.86% totally agreed with it and 20.83% were in moderate agreement. On the other side, 13.36% totally disagreed and 9.94% were in moderate disagreement. The rest, 0.46%, did not know or were not interested.