Friday meet of agencies will consider pay boost for lower-paid gov’t workers: source
Four government agencies are scheduled to meet on Friday (November 10) to discuss a plan to raise the salary of civil servants in line with the Pheu Thai Party’s election promise of a 25,000 baht starting salary for Bachelor’s degree graduates, a news source from Government House said on Thursday.
The four agencies are the Finance Ministry, Bureau of the Budget, Office of the Civil Service Commission, and Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council.
The source said the discussion would focus on adjusting salaries of low-earning officials first, as raising all civil servant salaries to meet the 25,000-baht criteria would require over 100 billion baht from the state budget.
The source added that one of the possible moves is to adjust the salaries in gradual steps, with low-level officials getting the biggest bump-ups while high ranking officials received smaller adjustments.
The move would aim to balance the spending power of all government officials throughout the country, which include civil servants, government employees, police officers, military officers, and pensioners.
The source added that the measure is likely to be implemented after the Office of the Civil Service Commission has finished adjusting the number of civil servants. That move is part of the government’s policy of reducing overlapping duties, streamlining the work process, and increasing work efficiency with the help of digital technology.
As of March 2023, Thailand has about 3 million civil servants, 1.75 million of whom are government officials, while 1.24 million are employees of state enterprises, universities, hospitals, public organisations, or are temporary staffers.
The budget for civil servant salaries for fiscal 2024 was set at 2.61 trillion baht, increasing from the previous year by 217 billion baht and equaling 75.28% of the total state expenditure budget of 3.48 trillion baht.
