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State Pay, Minimum Wage Rise in Talks

State employees and employees may see their salaries and wages increase soon to catch up with rising fuel and food prices.

Rungson Sriworasart, deputy comptroller-general at the Finance Ministry, said the raise is expected to take effect from October instead of April next year as planned earlier.

He said his department was preparing options for increasing salaries of permanent government employees.

Deputy Finance Minister Ranongrak Suwanchawee had earlier said that the pay raise would help government employees cope with the higher cost of living.

The plans also include a salary increase for 2.7 million state officials after the previous government granted a 4-per-cent raise last October.

Meanwhile, blue-collar workers are in talks with the government and their employers for a new minimum wage, which is expected to be up by 5 percent next month.

Some economist thinks raising the minimum wage is necessary as fuel and food prices are surging quickly.

Narong Phetprasert, an economist at Chulalongkorn University said, "I actually want to see the minimum wage go up by about Bt10 or Bt11 instead of Bt9, for workers in Greater Bangkok as demanded by trade unions." (Report by the Nation)

He expects the government and employers to allow a minimum wage to increase only Bt7 for workers in Greater Bangkok.

He said a much higher raise of a minimum wage is needed if the government wanted to increase domestic consumption while the export sector was weakening.

The Bank of Thailand has forecast that this year's inflation will be 4 or 5 per cent, from 2.3 per cent last year. The forecast is based on a minimum wage of Bt194 a day in Greater Bangkok.