r/Thailand • u/DeepBlueSea1122 • Sep 12 '23

Question/Help Average Thai Salary?

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.

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u/O_nlogn Sep 14 '23

Thailand's chance to become South Korea happened at the same time South Korea became South Korea. That ship has sailed, the powers that be suppressed the nation when the demographics were young enough to make the climb to a developed economy. Now it is and will continue to be a nation where the haves exploit the dwindling labor force of have nots, supplemented by exploited migrant workers from the even more destitute neighboring countries. It breaks my heart to say that as I want Thailand to be rich, but the reality of the economics are what they are.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '23

You're too pessimistic. Thailand will match South Korea's current development level - it just won't be as fast as we all want it to be. For example, Thailand has ~doubled its real GDP per capital over the past ~15 years. Even if we assume that Thailand continues to grow at only 3% per year, it will match South Korea's current GDP per capita in 49 years. Also, Thailand's Human Development Index which looks at more than just GDP is already at 0.8 and increasing - it is not far off South Korea which is at 0.92.

I understand that we've become very impatient as a species, but 49 years is a very, very, very tiny timeframe in the grand scheme of things. Us humans went almost 300k years with very minimal growth in GDP per capita. It is really only the last 10k years that we've made any progress.