The prime minister is not satisfied with the Wage Committee’s Friday decision on the new minimum wages in Thailand, saying that they are too low and promising a review.
Speaking to the media at the Pheu Thai party’s coordination centre in Kanchanaburi province yesterday, Srettha Thavisin said that the minimum wage increases, from Bt2-16, are too low while the cost of living is still increasing.
He noted that the Bt2-3 increase for the three southernmost provinces is insufficient to buy even a single egg.
He said that his government has been trying its best to reduce the hardships being suffered by low-income earners by cutting utility prices, tackling the informal debt problem and providing debt moratoria for farmers, but there are still many millions of people who depend on the minimum wage to survive.
He also said that he has made several foreign trips to try to convince large multinational companies to invest in Thailand and to seek free trade negotiations with numerous countries, to improve Thai exports.
He then complained about business operators and employers in general, saying that his pleas for them to have sympathy for their employees, who are the most affected by the increase in the cost of living, have not been responded to positively.
Instead, he said the businesses choose to suppress the wages and have refused to develop or restructure their operations, while continuing to seek the government’s help.
“Shall we allow Thai workers to continue to receive low wages, while workers in other countries, such as Singapore and South Korea, are earning at least Bt1,000 a day?” asked the prime minister.
“Shall we allow our brothers and sisters to become second or third-class citizens of the world?” he continued.
He said that he is not happy at all with the small increases and wants to convey this message, through the media, to all businesses, as he dismissed concerns that a larger increase in minimum wages would cause businesses to relocate to countries where wages are lower.
“Such a concern is mere rhetoric. No business will relocate if the wage is increased from just Bt300 to Bt400,” said the prime minister.
