Workers' tales shed light on the PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE
Once in a while, workers are told they must increase their productivity if they want increased rewards. However, that simple equation doesn't apply to all workers. Masseuses, for instance, need to do a lot more than increase their productivity, in order t
Traditional Thai massage shops are everywhere, offering a significant number of jobs. But only the lucky few masseuses will land employment in five-star hotels, where pay and tips are handsome.
The hundreds of masseuses at one of Bangkok’s biggest chains, with more than 15 outlets, have to work six days a week, eight hours per day. On a good day, a masseuse here will treat four customers for two hours each, and earn half of the Bt500 each treatment costs – a total of Bt1,000. But on days when no customers show up, they get nothing. The chain does not offer minimum pay, let alone other benefits.
Masseuses are often keen to find a job at shops in tourist destinations, hoping for big tips from foreign visitors. In Bangkok, massage therapists wearied by the daily eight-hour grind welcome tourists since they can seldom tell the difference between a high-quality massage and a poor one, and tip well either way.
To gain a competitive edge, some standalone shops use guaranteed minimum pay to attract quality masseuses. One such shop in Bangkok has just hooked a masseuse from Kanchanaburi.
New here, she is now ready to trade anything for higher pay. Away from home, she is having to rent a place to stay. And she’s feeling the pinch in other ways too. In Kanchanaburi, lunch was just Bt30, compared to Bt50 in Bangkok. Travel costs are an added new drain on her finances.
Another masseuse said that young people these days enter the business with a single dream – to land a job in a foreign country that pays more. In Hokkaido, Japan, an hour of traditional massage typically costs 4,000 yen, or about Bt1,100. In London, the price is 50 pounds – about Bt2,550. If the masseuse gets half, that’s significantly more than the pay at most massage shops in Thailand. But chasing that dream requires investment and skills. While many of the young dreamers can’t match the older masseuses in terms of skill, they have the desire and ability to finance their move abroad.
The tales from these masseuses reveal that pay does not rely solely on productivity, especially in the service sector.
In other sectors, where the minimum wage is more strictly adhered to, workers are at the mercy of the tri-partite wage committee, which reviews the wage every year. Millions were delighted when the minimum daily wage jumped to Bt300 nationwide on January 1, 2013. It was more than many had been expecting.
The Yingluck Shinawatra government was heavily criticised for the decision, which replaced a wage that differed depending on location with a flat rate. In more economically deprived provinces, like Chaiyaphum in the Northeast, the wage had been about Bt160. In thriving provinces like Phuket, it was Bt221.
But workers’ happiness at the hike was short-lived. As it turned out, not all enjoyed the benefits – particularly those living in border provinces where cheap labour was abundant for unskilled jobs. Activists in Tak, bordering Myanmar, have complained that migrants there are being paid below the Bt300 rate. That’s hardly a surprise given that there are Thai workers in Tak who still don’t get the minimum. Meanwhile, workers who are being paid the minimum mark are finding the hike hasn’t matched the increased cost of living.
The political instability in 2013 brought lower economic growth, which makes it difficult to evaluate the benefits or otherwise of the higher wage. The economic disruption and drop in foreign visitors led to meagre growth of 1.8 per cent.
The higher wage was expected to encourage a boost in productivity. But in the absence of strategic moves in relevant areas, that hasn’t materialised. Training courses are available, but they don’t cover the 10 million-plus workers in question. Not all employers welcome the training courses, since they see no short-term concrete gains. In some jobs, technology can help to boost productivity, but that requires investment.
Despite the Labour Ministry’s directive, many employees are not paid according to their skills. From January to September last year, 23,750 workers – or 2 per cent of 1.17 million workers at 33,747 workplaces – were mistreated pay-wise, according to the latest ministry data. Some workers managed to pass skill tests to earn above the minimum wage. Some employers do not want to pay it, but refusal to do so is against the law. The wage committee in January resolved that the minimum pay scale for skilled labour is backfiring. Employers wre tending not to keep those workers who had higher skills, so as to avoid breaking the law if they could not pay more. Failing to win higher pay, workers had little incentive to improve their skills. So the wage committee agreed that the legal penalties attached to the pay scale should be scrapped.
Two years have passed and it remains just as difficult to determine whether the higher minimum wage has truly benefited either workers, their employers or the economy.
But with the cost of living already increased and civil servants having been granted a pay hike, the minimum wage can’t be reversed. Like it or not, the Bt300 scale is here to stay. What matters now is how we handle future increases. It’s not healthy for any economy if workers don’t have the incentive of higher pay in return for improved productivity.
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