700 baht barfines at Soi Cowboy

[Central Scrutinizer]

OK, here's a list for the same year, 2005, as the US figures. This is Thai monthly income:

 

Ever wondered how much people get paid in Thailand? Here is an idea. At the moment, $1 is about 40 baht.

 

Agriculture, hunting and forestry (3,019 baht)

Fishing (2,968 baht)

Mining and quarrying (7,646 baht)

Manufacturing (6,420 baht)

Electricity, gas and water supply (17,841 baht)

Construction (4,706 baht)

Wholesale and retail trade, repair business (6,760 baht)

Hotels and restaurant (5,680 baht)

Transport, storage and communication (11,752 baht)

Financial intermediation (19,325 baht)

Real estate, renting and business activities (9,571 baht)

Public administration and defence (11,375 baht)

Education (14,883 baht)

Health and social work (10,804 baht)

Other community and social work (6,311 baht)

Private households with employed persons (4,068 baht)

Extra-territorial organisations and bodies (5,753 baht)

Unkown (12,341 baht)

 

Source: National Statistical Office, first quarter, 2005

 

Cent

 

p.s. If you add up these 18 stats of the monthly incomes shown here and divide it comes to an average monthly income of 8955.83. Close enough for me.

[Weird]

The people I talk to who work at restaurants claim to make between 10-12k.

 

The few whom I've heard or talked to who own those little clothing shops at random locations earn ~15k baht a month.

 

I use the 8k figure because it's an easily recognizable and less argued about by most.

 

As for Walmart workers not coming to Thailand for a week of debauchery, the same could probably be said about those who make the low Thai wages.

[Weird]

Minimum Daily Wage, by Location Salary in THB

Bangkok 170

Phuket 168

Phang Nga 145

Ranong 143

[Weird]

For fun, let's take the minimum daily wage and compare for both.

 

150 baht * 30 days = 4500 baht.

 

1500/4500 = 33%

 

260 days * 8 hours * $5 / 12 months

300/867 = 34%

 

So technically speaking it's slightly easier for minimum wage earners to do p4p in Thailand then the US.

[Mekong]

A bar owner friend of mine who some of you may know from his "Pubs/Restaurants" in Bangkok and Pattaya were discussing Thai salaries last week.

 

He pays New Waiters / Waitress' 4K month when they start, and head waiter and barman are on about 8K. The reason it came up is because he ofeten uses his head waiter as his driver on his days off and last weekend dropped him 500 Baht to pick him up at 6 AM on Saturday to drive him to a Golf Tournament hang around all day then bring him back to the bar that evening.

 

The Head Waiter in question said straight to our faces 500 Baht may not seem a lot to you guys but for me after I finish work I can go and have dinner get drunk and also get laid on that and still have money left for a moto-cyc taxi home. 500 Baht was half a weeks wages for 10 hours overtime.

 

Cent,

 

Whilst not disagreeing with the figures that you quoted they only represent the lower end of the workforce, unskilled labour to say. I think for a more representative comparision between Thai / Farang salaries you should take a look at the file I have attached from 2 years ago. The salaries quoted are in line with what I know the company I work for pays our employees and also what my wife and her family and friends earn.

 

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

So on the average as I calculated above, the average Thai makes almost 9,000 baht a month (8955.83 baht), and the average Yank makes $2,729.84 a month. At least according to these 2005 figures.

 

At 2005 exchange rates of say 40 to 1 this means the rate difference is 12.23 to 1, the Yank making a little more than 12 times as much as the Thai. So the 15 to 1 ratio was close, as is the 8,000 baht a month average Thai monthly income. The $20 income quoted earlier by Cav was it? Is close (after taxes?) $682.25 being the weekly income, and 2729.84 being the monthly Yank income average. So $15 an hour for the average American worker, and 50 baht an hour for the average Thai worker. At 2,000 baht for a ST the provider makes 40 hours of the average Thai person's wage. A week's pay. Wheras at $300 for a ST in the states by a provider she makes only 20 hours average pay at $15 an hour being the average wage. Half as much in comparison. Hey, these girls are getting screwed! Oh, yeah, that's for 15 to 30 minutes work compared to the average ST in BKK at 1 hour? So all things, equal then?

 

So all this shows that actually you pay the same in BKK as you do in the states for sex!

 

And you all thought it was cheaper here! :evil:

 

Cent

[Weird]

$20 an hour comes out to roughly $2200 a month after taxes.

[robaus]

>>Suppose there are places you can get better prices

 

... Yep. It's called Pattaya!

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Mekong,

 

OK, good. I like seeing these stats/numbers for the incomes. But, if you average these out I wonder how much higher they would be over the national average. Firstly, I'd suspect there are many more jr secretaries in the business than exec secs, right? And all along the line there will more at the lower end of the pay scales than at the higher end yeah (most will be on the lower to mid range of these pay-scales shown)? So likely an average would be at the lower end if we had the numbers of how many had each of these better paying jobs.

 

Also, the averages used earlier were total Thailand 'country' averages of 8900 baht. Now you are talking of the high end jobs, all requiring a university degree, many requiring good to fluent English, and these are Bangkok jobs. So, if we wanted to use this to say show that, hey, this is Bangkok, and the wages are higher so higher costs in the P4P industry should be reflected due to this? I don't think so, as the working girls usually, (and please, I know there are some there, but not that many), are not women with university degrees, and, most are not from Bangkok but from the provinces where they would likely make 150 to 200 baht a day, if lucky. The guys coming here are not paying university graduates for sex, they are paying mostly farm girls from poor families, with little education, and with little opportunities (although they could, some of them, have furthered their education, it's debatable for most I'd say, as many never even graduated from high school) for most of them to go further in their education and get these good jobs.

 

But hell, I am happy the P4P girls can get these higher incomes. They try to get what the market will bear, and more power to them. You can't blame them. The debate though is why are the prices rising in P4P over the past few years, and what is driving this trend. I'd say it is the tourist punters willing to pay these inflated prices without much question or thought about it. It is still cheaper in Bangkok than where they come from (and easier-with little problems doing so here) and a 'deal'. But if the trend continues, it won't be much cheaper for long.

 

And, for Americans (and this could be anyone really-how much control does any citizen have over their exchange rates and monetary value) it is getting much more expensive (25% more from just 2 years ago for us Yanks), and likely to continue getting so. Also, for those expats and retirees on fixed incomes the continued higher cost of living (and partying and P4P) continues to eat into their fixed incomes-even with the COL adjustments some may have. Add some P4P sanuk into that and the costs are getting up there.

 

The P4P costs don't affect me, as I don't indulge. Although the cost of drinking in the bars with friends has increased, as my dollar value has decreased, which is a bother. And I do enjoy going to the bars on occasion with friends for sanuk.

 

Just some fun discussing this stuff and my own thoughts on it. YMMV.

 

Cent

[Encore]

Of course, the Thai guy on the 'average' Thai income of 9000 Bt/ month wouldn't dream of paying 1500 + BF for an Isan Gogodancer, but rather he'd go to the local town brothel where he'd pay around 300 Bt or less. That of course would change the ration of hours worked vs hour sanuk quite a bit. The reason gogo prices in places like SC are what they are is that the average client is falang and has a higher income, AND is willing to pay it.

 

The other upmarket establishments such as clubs, with even higher prices simply also serve people with even higher disposable incomes.

 

I agree with you though, I don't begrudge the girls their bid to maximise their income, it is up to both parties to agree or not.

 

I do find it telling though that in all of the past two weeks I didn't pay more then 2K for LT, never agreed on a price beforehand, and invariably on my return to the bar next day was asked to BF her again. And that wasn't because I'm young and handsome. (well, maybe because they like the way I play my bugle :-) )