PUBLISHED : 24 Sep 2023 at 09:56
A large majority of government officials and state enterprise employees are in debt and agree with the government’s policy to have the monthly salary for bachelor’s degree graduates start from 25,000 baht, according to a survey by the National Institute for Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted on Sept 19-21 by telephone interviews with 1,310 employees in government offices and state enterprises aged 18 and over of various levels of education and incomes throughout the country to compile their opinions on salary for state officials.
Asked whether their salary (excluding extra payments legally acquired) is sufficient to cover their expenses and savings, 44.81% of the respondents said it is not enough, neither for their expenses nor savings; 28.32% said it is enough for both the expenses and savings; and 26.87% said it is enough for the expenses, but not for savings.
Asked whether they have debts from borrowings, 44.35% said “yes”, from financial institutions; 43.36% said “yes”, from savings cooperatives; and 3.66% said they borrowed from non-formal lenders (including friends and relatives). The rest, 25.57%, have no debts.
Asked about the government to split the payments for state officials to twice a month, 71.30% totally disagreed with it and 11.83% in moderate disagreement. On the other side, 8.32% were completely agree with it and 7.71% in moderate agreement. The rest, 0.84%, had no answer or were not interested.
To the government’s policy to get the salary for bachelor’s degree graduates start from 25,000 baht per month, 57.86% totally agreed with it and 20.83% in moderate agreement. On the other side, 13.36% totally disagreed and 9.94% in moderate disagreement. The rest, 0.46%, had not answer or were not interested.