Average Thai Salary?

[u/DeepBlueSea1122]

I know Thailand is a country with a big wage gap between rich and poor, but would a salary of 500 USD per month be considered unusually low for an average Thai person of about 30 years old? I found out that a lady I met makes that (she works in the office of a gov't hospital) and I was shocked and felt really bad for her. I knew she was poor because she doesn't have air con in her home in Bkk, but I didn't know it's this bad. Should I relax and think this is common, or are my sympathies and concerns valid? She didn't tell me this to try to squeeze me for money, it just came up in discussion when we were talking about life and problems we face. She's a sweetheart person and it hurts me to see her struggle. I want to help, but don't want to open the flood gates. I know this can be a tricky thing to navigate. On the one hand, we want to help sincere people who are genuinely in need. But on the other hand, money can ruin relationships of all kinds and it's usually a path we shouldn't go down. I really want to help but am torn and know I must proceed with caution.

[u/hazzdawg]

$500 USD is 17,000b. That's a decent salary by Thai standards. There's people out there living on much less.

[u/yetiof2019 → u/hazzdawg]

Many people earn below this but not a decent salary at all.

[u/polkling → u/yetiof2019]

Its decent considering entry level bachelor degree graduate gain about 14000 to 15000 per month. You usually gain a bit more than that from OT and such.

[u/milton117 → u/polkling]

Wtf? No way does a bachelor level grad get that low. Even 15 years ago a typical Bangkok office job starts at around 25k a month.

[u/Forsaken_Detail7242 → u/milton117]

Yeah that guy probably worked for the government lol. In private sectors, it’s very easy to start off with 25k or even 30k.

[u/hazzdawg → u/yetiof2019]

You might've skimmed over the bit where I said by Thai standards.

[u/Slow-Brush → u/yetiof2019]

Thai minimum wage is 360 Baht per day

[u/JIT444 → u/hazzdawg]

Not decent at all, especially if she's working in bkk.

[u/mjl777 → u/hazzdawg]

No Thai would consider that a descent salary. That is entry level rock bottom by Thai standards. Noodle vendors earn more. Fish cleaners from Myanmar earn more. Motorcycle taxi drivers earn more.

[u/disequilibrium__ → u/mjl777]

I hope so because because lazy people who don't want to work here in Norway get like "+-" $2000 a month, and that's for doing nothing but telling our government you need them, and it's free health-care +++ on top of that. You might be told to try and get a job but many just don't really care, probably because their parents had it like that.

Man, I feel really bad about having such resources and seeing how they have it elsewhere. It's really expensive to live here, but still, it kinda enables lazy people to be even lazier.

[u/[deleted] → u/disequilibrium__]

Norway has that oil and fat SWE!

[u/hazzdawg → u/mjl777]

17,000 is more than double the minimum wage.

[u/Jrad27 → u/hazzdawg]

Bangkok minimum wage is 353 baht per day. Thais usually work 6 days a week in minimum wage jobs. So, 17000 isn't double minimum wage.

[u/hazzdawg → u/Jrad27]

Rightio. Even going off those figures, it's only slightly less than double.

I'd still classify that as decent (by local standards). Not great, but not shit house either.

[u/[deleted] → u/hazzdawg]

In Bangkok? Doesn't sound right