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Published on October 24, 2007

"It will absolutely hurt investment and make entrepreneurs shoulder greater capital costs," Somsak Boonkaew, a construction contractor, said yesterday.

Phuket's minimum daily wage is now the highest in the country outside Bangkok after it was raised Bt7 to Bt183 by the National Wage Committee last week.

Phumisak Hongyok, president of the island's Real Estate Club, said businesses were already suffering from increases in both oil prices and official land assessments and the pay hike could deal a further blow to the investment climate in the southern province.

Some merchants, however, see no difference in their operations.

"We pay workers more than the minimum wage in practice anyway, so, it shouldn't really affect business," said the owner of a mirror shop, who asked not to be named.

Wijit Dasanthad, president of the provincial labour association for service workers, said the extra Bt7 a day was appropriate and acceptable as the cost of living was climbing day by day.

"I don't think it will cause such a serious problem as the effective pay is normally higher than the minimum wage in general here. Some businesses don't apply the minimum wage but provide their workers food and board instead," he said.

"This could rather be an incentive for more trained staff to come work in Phuket. That would partly solve the crisis today in skilled labour," Wijit said.

 Salinee Prab

 The Nation

Phuket