BANGKOK: The Thai government is pushing ahead with a big rise in the minimum wage despite appeals from industry to shelve the plan to help companies cope with financial losses after the worst floods in half a century devastated parts of the country.
Flooding has killed at least 307 people since late July, damaged large areas of farmland and closed half a dozen huge industrial estates this month at a potential cost of 1.7 percent of gross domestic product.
At a meeting of a tripartite wage committee on Monday, employers were outvoted by government and worker representatives and a minimum daily wage of 300 baht ($9.70) was set for Bangkok and six other relatively well-off provinces, an increase of about 40 percent.
However, the start date has been pushed back from Jan 1.
"This will be effective on April 1, 2012 because of the flooding," Labour Ministry permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong told reporters.
The rest of Thailand's 77 provinces will also get a rise of 40 percent, but that will leave the minimum below 300 baht.
A rise in the minimum wage to a uniform 300 baht around the country was one of the main policies of the party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in July's election. It would have meant an increase of 90 percent in some poorer areas.
A 300 baht daily wage is five times higher than the minimum in Vietnam and 2.5-4.6 times that in Indonesia, according to Kasikorn Research Center. A rice-based meal for one person costs about 37 baht from a Bangkok street-vendor.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of Yingluck and seen by many as the person really running the government from self-imposed exile in Dubai, had argued for the full increase to go ahead.
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