Pledge of B450 per time sparks a contentious conversation
Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward Party( MFP ), vowed that if his party forms the new government, he will push for a proposed increase in the minimum wage to 450 baht per day.
Mr. Pita, the MFP candidate for prime minister, stated that he had discussed the proposed salary increase with the personal business on a YouTube channel hosted by media anchor Sorayuth Suthassanachinda.
There is a lot of discussion about the MFP’s vote commitment to quickly raise the regular minimum income to 450 baht and change it periodically to keep up with inflation. Although it may be honorable to support unemployed workers, observers say it is crucial to recognize the hike’s possible effects on businesses and the general economy.
” The private business may be coerced into raising wages by the state.” According to the law, the issue needs to be discussed by the bilateral committee.
The pay is still less than 10,000 baht if an worker works 20 days a month, despite the fact that the cost of living is extremely large today, according to Mr. Pita.
Before making an announcement, the trilateral regional pay committee, which consists of the government, employers, and labor unions, must finalize the specifics of any proposed income increase and present them to the cabinet.
Given the broad effects on stakeholders, this strategy will guarantee transparency and accountability in the decision-making process.
Mr. Pita stated that he will still need to meet with businesses to discuss the proposed salary increase in more detail. However, if the MFP takes over as the government, steps would also be taken to lessen the effect of the increase on companies, such as lowering taxes for small and medium-sized businesses and granting employers a six-month discharge of contributions to the Social Security Fund.
” We did take care of Businesses affected by the pay increase with relief packages designed to help them ,” Mr. Pita declared.
Mr. Pita stated that the government may send representatives to the bilateral committee to discuss the plan to improve the daily income to 450 baht within 100 days of taking power and to present measures to assist affected employers.
While he will press for the salary increase, Mr. Pita continued by saying that another policies, such as lowering electricity rates and oil prices, increasing business liquidity, raising state revenue, and promoting exports, will also be pursued.
Additionally, he made an effort to ease worries that the proposed wage increase may force major corporations to relocate their production facilities in Thailand to different nations.
I spoke with significant corporations, and they predicted that this would be a chance to move from labor to new innovations. whether there will be fewer personnel employed… I believe that a greater number of high-quality work will still be available for jobs.
We cannot afford to allow small compensation to restrict the nation’s ability to compete. We will figure out how to assist by cutting additional expenses for providers.
We’ll go over why raising income is required and why employees deserve it. We are prepared to assist large operators in any way that the[ incoming ] government requests, according to Mr. Pita.
Santitarn Sathirathai, the party chief economist of the Singapore-based technical conglomerate Sea Group, expressed his support for any initiatives to combat economic inequality in Thailand in a post on Facebook on Friday.
Every coverage, he said, has advantages and disadvantages, even though the minimum wage may be raised.
In this situation, a proposed wage increase without addressing the issue of efficiency will be detrimental because businesses will have to deal with rising costs and may need to relocate their production facilities abroad or exchange workers with machinery or technologies, according to him.