Workers' call for Bt360 daily minimum wage
As labourers called for the daily minimum wage of Bt360 nationwide, Ministry of Labour permanent secretary Jarin Chakkaphark on Thursday said that the Central Wage Committee will set the new rate before March 30, to become effective from April 1.
All the provincial wage committees have already submitted their recommendations to the Central Wage Committee's sub-panel to check facts and determine the most appropriate increment. This should be complete by the end of February, said Jarin in his capacity as the committee chairman.
No conclusion has been reached so far, he said, because they were checking various factors, such as the current wage, the cost of living index, the average inflation, the average living cost, the production cost of goods and services, the capacity on business, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The call for a flat-rate Bt360 daily minimum wage was within the workers' right but authorities would carefully consider the actual wage hike based on facts and ensure fairness to both the employers and the workers, Jarin said.
"The daily minimum wage is different from one province to another because of differences in cost of living and some 4-5 factors. We are still in the process of considering the appropriate rates and the Central Wage Committee would conclude the new wages in March," he said.
Last year, the daily minimum wage increased in the range of Bt5-Bt22 among seven provincial clusters with Phuket, Chon Buri and Rayong having the highest rate wage at Bt330 a day.
At of present time, Thailand has seven daily minimum wage rates - Bt308 (in three southernmost border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat), Bt310 (in 22 provinces), Bt315 (in 21 provinces), Bt318 (in seven provinces), Bt320 (in 14 provinces including Khon Kaen and Ubol Ratchathani), Bt325 (in seven provinces including Bangkok and Samut Prakan) and Bt330. The average minimum wage is Bt315.97.