The Ministry of Labor has concluded new minimum wage
rates for Bangkok and other industry-based provinces across the country,
with the increase ranging from Bt2-8 a day.
The conclusion was reached at a meeting of the central
committee on minimum wage rates, held at the Ministry of Labor on July 18.
The committee decided to increase the minimum wage in
Thailand’s upper southern province of Prachuap Khiri Khan by Bt8 a day,
the highest, followed by Bt6 a day in Bangkok and 15 other provinces,
including Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Chacherngsao, Saraburi,
Nakhon Pathom, Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Nakhon Ratchasima, Kanchanaburi,
Chonburi, Rayong, Trat, Lopburi and Ranong.
The committee also approved a pay rise of Bt4 a day for
the country’s northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Lamphun, and Bt2 a day,
the lowest, for the northeastern province of Ummajjaroen. However, no pay
rise was approved in the country’s southernmost province of Narathiwat.
The committee said that the conclusion mostly followed
the proposed wage increases submitted by the sub-committees on minimum wages
in the separate areas.
The new minimum wage rates will be effective August 1.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 workers from local labor
networks, under the name of the Committee on the Reconciliation of Thai
Labors, gathered at Government House on July 18, demanding an increase in
the minimum wage to Bt233 a day across the country. The workers also
demanded that the government announce a new pay rise structure for employees
of all sectors across the nation by October 1 and implement measures to
strictly curb the prices of consumers’ products, as well as scrap its plan
to assign the National Health Insurance Institute to solely manage the
country’s medical welfare systems for employees. (TNA)
