Academics give Bt300 wage the nod
Academics from various agencies, including the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), yesterday expressed full support for the idea of raising the daily minimum wage to Bt300 across the country.
"The current wage is not sufficient for workers to avoid poverty," TDRI Labour Development Research Director Assoc Prof Dr Yongyuth Chalamwong said yesterday.
Yongyuth said while the cost of living has risen by 3.25 per cent over the past 10 years, the daily minimum wage has risen by just 2.84 per cent.
Ammorn Chavalit, an academic adviser to the Labour Ministry's Office of the Permanent Secretary, added that while product price had soared by 28.2 per cent over the past decade, the daily minimum wage had increased by 25.7 per cent only.
They were speaking at a seminar entitled, "What do you think about the Bt300 daily wage?"
Federation of Thai Industries representative Thaweekij Jatujarernkhun, warned that the sharp rise in the daily minimum wage might prompt many employers to relocate their manufacturing bases to a neighbouring country like Cambodia.
"The monthly wage for workers there is just a little over Bt2,000," he said.
Wanlop Kingcharnsin, who represents employers in the Central Wage Committee, urged the government to think about unregistered workers if the daily minimum wage suddenly rose.
"Product price will increase too and while more than 10 million registered workers who get the pay raise will be able to cope - what about the 24 million people outside the registered labour sector, such as farmers?" he asked.
