State employees to get pay rises

The Finance Ministry plans to announce pay rises for degree holders to Bt15,000 in the form of additional monthly allowances, while non-university graduates will also get pay rises, Rangsan Srivorasat, director-general of the Comptroller-General’s Department, said yesterday.
The ministry has sent the draft of the regulations governing the planned pay rises to the State Council, the government’s legal advisory body, for final approval, and will officially announce the pay increase on January 1, Rangsan said.
The pay increase covers 649,323 state employees in five categories: civil servants (soldiers, police officers, teachers, university personnel and parliamentary officials); permanent state employees; temporary employees paid from the government budget; low-ranking soldiers performing mandatory military service; and government office workers.Those whose salary is less than Bt12,285 per month will get an allowance of Bt1,500, but the gross payment must not exceed Bt12,285. Those whose salary is less than Bt9,000 will get additional income to make up the shortfall.
The 346,365 such employees who hold bachelor’s degrees will get total combined income of Bt1.59 billion per month from the government. The rest will get Bt455 million per month.
The total cost of the payments between January and September is expected to be Bt18.4 billion.
Because of the delay in the government’s budget, payment is only for nine months of fiscal year 2012 (October 2011 to September 2012).The pay rise is intended to help low-income earners cope with the rising cost of living and to boost consumption.
The government has promised to increase the minimum wage for labourers in Greater Bangkok and Phuket to Bt300 in April as one of its populist schemes. The sharp hike is strongly opposed by many in the business community, as they complain that it will increase their costs. -