The Pheu Thai Party should avoid campaigning for a policy that would destroy the economy, Labor Minister Suchart Chomklin said while referring to the main opposition party’s proposal for a 600 Bhat minimum wage.
The current prime minister and former prime minister have also weighed in their comments.
“Pheu Thai can campaign for anything but they must think about the economic crisis that could follow,” he said. “They should not be campaigning for fun like this because what they said was like a time bomb for business operators,” he said.
Suchart said the party might gain votes from the policy but it will be business operators that will be paying for the rising labor cost.
He also said that the policy will discourage foreign investors from investing in the country.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said the policy might be too ambitious.
“It is easier said than done,” he said.
He said future ramifications must be considered when come to a formulation of a policy and there are also business operators and investors to listen to.
Their comments came after the Pheu Thai Party announced its policies for the upcoming general election yesterday.
The highlights were the promise to increase the minimum wage to 600 Baht per day from the current range of 328-354 per day and the promise to increase the starting wage for new graduates to 25,000 Baht per month from the current 15,000 Baht.
Both can be done within the next government’s 4-year term or by 2027, the party said.
Suchart is a member of the ruling pro-military party Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) which is failing to fulfill its campaign promises of increasing the minimum wage to 450 Baht per day and the starting wage for new graduates to 20,000 Baht per month.
The current government’s term is coming to an end in March 2023.
The latest minimum wage hike of 5-8% came into effect in October after headline inflation hit a 14-year high.
Workers in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces saw the biggest increase of 22 Baht and the smallest increase of 8 Baht was applied in Udon Thani and Nan. The highest rate overall is now in Chon Buri, Rayong and Phuket at 354 Baht.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said during his weekly talk on social media talk last night that increasing the daily minimum wage to 600 Baht within 4 years is possible if the economy is properly managed.
“People who are complaining about the increase of the minimum wage have little understanding of economics and little empathy for fellow human beings,” he said.
He said the Pheu Thai Party’s minimum wage policy came with the promise to increase the country’s gross domestic product expansion from the current average of 3% to 5%.
The party said they will create 20 million new jobs via the promotion of soft power skills and that would allow the Thai economy to grow while the global economy is entering a recession next year.
Thaksin said the minimum wage would have been 800 Baht per day by now if the party was able to do their job instead of being interrupted by the coup cycle.
He said that when his party, the now dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party, introduced the 30 Baht universal healthcare policy it was met with heavy criticism from the Democrat Party but his party still managed to get it done.
“If you do not truly know about Pheu Thai policy, do not hurry to attack it,” he said.
Pansak Vinyaratn, a former policy advisor to Thaksin, said if the government can provide a better investment environment for investors, they will certainly look passed the 600 Baht minimum wage.
“Over the past 8 years, Thai billionaires have been heavily investing in other countries because they have built a better investment environment in terms of legal matters and business operations along with economic and political stabilities,” he said.
“If the government can put together all the parts that investors who want to invest in Thailand are looking for, the minimum wage of 600 Baht is very cheap,” he said.
