Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Hi all, Been chatting with a Thai girl now for a while. Here's her story. Can this be real? Works at an internet shop in BKK. When asked where she lived, she said Don Muang (airport) area. She has always maintained that she makes 3,500 a month......but get this! She works from 9:00am until 2:30am. Yea, you are reading that right. 17.5 hours a day/7 days a week. Never a day off. I figured this out, and knowing that Thai minumum wage is around 180bt/day, she would have to make over 5K baht for 30 days work. When asked, she said Thai minimum wage only applied to big business, and government jobs. She also mentioned that she must eat on 40 baht/day, and is very poor. Well, I wake up at 3:00am her time, this morning, and she is still logged in????? I ask her where internet shop is, because how will she travel home, and still get more than a few hours sleep? She says she is very poor, and cannot afford apartment, so she sleeps on the floor in the shop......she lives there. She then tells me internet shop is across from airport, so explains her previous statements about where she lived. She was still logged into computer at 3:00am because she was scared, because there was a scorpion in toilet, and she had to kill it. My question is not about her particular situation, or I would be posting in 'Relationships'. I'm more interested whether this is a common situation. Where workers are exploited for ridiculous wages. And if getting around the Thai minimum wage laws are quite common. I know quite a few non-bar girls, but most are uni-grads, and work in offices. 10 to 15K baht is the average, with weekends off. Silom secretary with AT&T = 15K, factory office workers = 12 to 15K, etc. But man....if her story is common for non-uni grads, it's no wonder they turn to prostitution. I can't punch any holes in her story concerning hours, because she is ALWAYS there, every single time, for the last 13 days I've known her. And I contact her at least 15 times a day. Be it 9am, 6 pm, or 2am. Any stories out there about ridiculously low wages and/or ridiculous hours. Especially in BKK? I realize wages are lower in the countryside. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Says HIGH THAIED: I can't punch any holes in her story concerning hours, because she is ALWAYS there, every single time, for the last 13 days I've known her. And I contact her at least 15 times a day. Be it 9am, 6 pm, or 2am. Are you sure it is not more than one person you are talking to? Forgive me for being cynical but i have a mental picture of a group of internet employees trying a bit of a leg pull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Forgive me for being cynical but i have a mental picture of a group of internet employees trying a bit of a leg pull. Wish it were true, but probably not. The greatest problem that anyone from the west has in understanding a lot of this part of the world are the levels of income. There are no doubt many in the same situation as this girl describes. In fact that are millions that would envy her. A dry place to sleep, a toilet, little physical labor.....the dream of many. And these are city people, come here to escape the rural poverty. Yes for many, way too many, prostitution, begging, whatever, is better than the lives they led before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Well, my gf half agrees, half disagrees. Small salary, yes, long working hours, yes, lodging onsite yes (i would call this exploitation), but no more than a few hours sleep? She would not work at such a place... It is also known that 7/11 employees work long hours for a lousy salary and that the minimum wage is not respected. And who said some girls prefer the easy/greedy live of a BG over a 40 baht daily food budget? Edited: add to this: my gf worked for a bank director "taking care of house and cooking food" for 5k baht/month, own room with tv, long hours, 2x 1 week holiday to go home. Worked to reimburse loan for parents make house together with 2 other sisters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 yeah, those lazy, greedy, sheming BGs, born with the sin in them.....Why can't they work 12/14 hours a day for 3500 bahts, like so many other exploited thais ::? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Agree with you and your g/f. I suspect she has not been there too long. Apparently has a higher than rice farm girl level of education, computer skills, English (unless HT's Written Thai has improved a lot.) Sounds like the standard crisis in family scenario # 142. Had a life planned, but someone elses became more important. Eats on 40 baht a day because she probably sends 2k a month home. Doesn't really mind the hours...what else is she going to do. Living elsewhere won't work, need money for room, busses, taxis etc., tempted to go shopping, etc., not nice world outside those doors. And who knows, maybe she meet GHF (Good Hearted Farang) on Internet who will make all her dreams come true. Well, we all have to dream. Until then, this is safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 My mrs did at Toshiba till she came to her senses to look for an adonis like me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Hi thalenoi, Yes.......She has said would be very easy to make a lot of money if she were to prostitute, but that it is not her, and cannot do. And to skeptics, (as I sure as hell was), they have webcam in the shop. I can see her, so I know she is always there...and I mean 'always'. I guess because she does not pay rent, this works out OK for her, but she says she sleeps on the floor of shop, so they do not even provide a sleeping room for her. 1,200 (40 per day) for food leaves, her 2,300 bt. to live on for the month. If true, it really does make you think a little differently about the scene there. My God...... what integrity it must take to live like that, knowing you could just lay on your back for a few hours a month, for the same pay. Gotta have a very deep respect for someone like that. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorris22 Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 It very probably is true. I work for a large multinational. We have a manufacturing facility in BKK. Company pays the labor around 200 baht a day. that is 12 hours and 6 days a week. 4800 baht a month. from what I understand a Thai construction work makes 160 baht a day in Pattaya. And we call them lazy? For what 2 drinks in a beer bar cost us is all that they make in a 12 hour day. It's almost obscene. .....climbing up on my soap box...... And then there are the Farangs that pride themselves on the ability to go to a go go bar, grope half of the girls not buy a lady drink. Or the Farang that will post on every board available about how he got ripped off or scammed for 50 baht. A lousy $1.25. Or the Farang so proud of his negotiating skills that he got the BG for 800 instead of 1000....... or even free. Or the Farang that is so in tune with Thai Culture that he knows it is a no tipping society and never leaves a tip and will get pissed if it is apparent someone wants a tip. Has it ever crossed anyones mind that you can actually double an average Thai's standard of living for a lousy 5 dollars a day? I would bet money the girls story is true. As mentioned in one of the replies she is probably lucky to have a nice dry airconed place to sleep in. That is of course if the owner let's her run the aircon at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Hi LaoHuLi, Spot on...........She does give parents money, does not buy anything for herself, etc. And when I tell her she needs to look for better job, she says that she is happy??? You are right also, about the convienience of not needing to spend on transport, temptations of shopping, etc. It could have been her, who wrote your post. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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