Labour Affairs Q&A: Change long overdue on the minimum wage

QUESTION Should the minimum wage be a daily or hourly rate?

ANSWER

It's time for the minimum wage to be set per hour, not per day.

Labour economists (if there are any) and industrialists should question the Wage Committee and the Labour Ministry on why Thailand continues to announce minimum wage rates on a per-day basis, since it was Bt12 per day in 1972 until Bt203 per day this year for Bangkok and five surrounding provinces.

The minimum wage is for a regular eight-hour day of work. Can firms pay half of the minimum wage if work is only a half-day?

Labour officials say we cannot pay anything less than the minimum wage, which is set per day, or simply enough for a worker alone to live on for a day.

It is lawful only to pay students working part-time for the hours they work, using the minimum wage per day, divided by eight as an hourly rate.

The business world today sees thousands of people who want to work part of the day so they can do other things for the rest of the day. Likewise, some businesses want people to help out part of the day, not always the regular eight-hour day.

If the minimum wage is an hourly rate, part-timers will be paid for their hours at work. Employers will hire as many people to work as many hours as they mutually agree on.

This will let students, teachers, housewives, medical personnel, research assistants, visitors, pensioners or retirees to work without giving up their other responsibilities.

Some people who are not required to work overtime can work one-and-a-half jobs, receiving extra income as a safety buffer for a job loss.

We refer the Wage Committee to Section 6 of the Labour Protection Act, on the Wage Committee, to realise what the law requires them to do. Nothing in the law states that the minimum wage should to be set per day.

Why are officials shut off from the world around them, and continue to set obsolete minimum wage rates that are not realistic, not reflecting differences in the cost of living among various provinces?

Workers who are unionised may take better care of themselves through collective bargaining. Non-unionised workers are at the mercy of the Wage Committee.

Supachai Manusphaibool is managing director of MR&TS, a cross-cultural management consulting company. Send your questions to mrts@truemail.co.th