Promising voters a rise in wages is a supposed curtain-raiser for national election campaigning. However, Pheu Thai's election pledge to lift the minimum daily wage from just over 300 baht to 600 baht has run into a barrage of criticism. The private sector, namely the employers, who will have to foot the bill, countered by saying the pledge would do more harm than good and won't help the country in the long term.
Sanan Angubolkul, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, warned that many entrepreneurs running SMEs struggled when the minimum wage was raised in 2011 which also saw some large industries move their production bases to other countries as a result.
