Hiring in Thailand

A foreign company can hire in Thailand through its Thai entity, an employer of record, or an independent contractor engaged to deliver an agreed result. Thai law treats work for an employer in return for wages as employment regardless of the contract label; a hire of services is paid for time worked, while a hire of work is paid for the agreed result. 4dev.com is a global contractor platform working with contractors in Thailand.

Three ways to hire in Thailand

The route determines who employs the worker, which contributions apply and how the relationship ends. If another party supplies workers, Section 11/1 may also affect who is treated as the employer.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Thai entity	5.0% employer SSF on covered wages, subject to its monthly cap; employer-only WCF is separate and depends on the assigned business-risk rate.	For indefinite employment, written notice takes effect on the Next pay date (≤3 months); statutory severance can also apply.
Employer of record	The employer named in the provider arrangement. Thailand has no standalone statutory EOR category, so the structure, including any Section 11/1 question, needs to be assessed for the arrangement.	For an employment arrangement, 5.0% employer SSF is subject to the same monthly cap; WCF remains an employer-only assigned-rate contribution.	The employment arrangement must be assessed on its terms; for indefinite employment, the statutory notice rule is Next pay date (≤3 months), with severance where applicable.
Contractor	The contractor is the contractual counterparty, not the legal employer.	The service agreement sets the commercial consideration; employee SSF and WCF are not employee-route add-ons for genuinely independent services.	The service agreement governs the end of the engagement; the statutory employee notice rule does not describe this route.

For both employee routes, ordinary Section 33 SSF is 5.0% of covered monthly wages up to a THB 17,500 monthly base from 2026 through 2028. The employer maximum is THB 875 a month. WCF is a separate employer-paid annual contribution at an assigned 0.2–1.0% business-risk rate, on annual wages capped at THB 240,000. The Employee Welfare Fund begins collection on 1 January 2027; severance depends on the employment arrangement and length of service.

The labour market in Thailand

The Q2 2026 private-employee means give a broad starting point for a hiring budget: THB 14,533 / month nationally and THB 19,049 in Bangkok. The Bangkok mean is more relevant to a Bangkok-based hire, but neither figure sets pay for a particular role or a statutory wage.

Salary reference points

National private employees	THB 14,533 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026
Bangkok private employees, all industries	THB 19,049 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026
Bangkok private employees, information and communication	THB 31,148 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026

The national mean includes daily wage workers and labourers. The Bangkok information-and-communication figure is a sector mean, not a software-engineer salary. Check the proposed role and location before turning any of these population averages into an offer.

Registering as an employer, step by step

Work authorisation, first-hire WCF registration and insured-person SSO reporting have separate triggers. An own-entity hire therefore has an overall timing of Varies; the filing windows cannot be added into one setup duration.

Step	What happens	Takes + total
Establish the employing entity, if this route requires one	Set up the Thai entity that will employ the person.	Varies
Check foreign-work authorisation, if relevant	A foreign national needs the applicable authorisation before starting work and must stay within its authorised rights. Thailand’s e-WorkPermit service accepts online applications, with a service-centre biometric appointment after approval.	Varies
Register the first employee with the Workmen’s Compensation Fund	Register the employer with the WCF within 30 days of hiring its first employee.	Within 30 days of the first hire
Register an insured employee with the Social Security Office	File SSO 1-03 within 30 days of the employee becoming insured. Use SSO 6-09 for a later exit or change, by the 15th of the following month.	Within 30 days of insured status; later changes by the 15th of the following month
Record the Employee Welfare Fund date separately	Employee Welfare Fund collection begins on 1 January 2027; this is a future commencement date, not a WCF-registration step.	Future advisory
Overall timing	The entity, work-authorisation and fund obligations have different triggers and may proceed in parallel.	Varies

Hiring and onboarding in Thailand

Put the employment terms, applicable wage and required registrations in place for the actual arrangement. A foreign worker also needs the appropriate work authorisation; a supplier's contract label does not settle who is treated as the employer.

Legal limits

For a foreign national, check the applicable work-authorisation route before work begins and keep the role within the authorised rights. The nationwide e-WorkPermit service began on 13 October 2025; it accepts online applications, but approval is followed by a service-centre appointment for biometric identity verification and the announcement gives no approval-time commitment.

Probation limit: No statutory maximum. Probation is treated as indefinite employment for notice purposes and does not avoid severance after 120 days of service. Working-day overtime ordinarily needs the employee’s prior consent on each occasion, subject to the statutory exceptions for necessary continuous, emergency or prescribed work. A business with 10 or more employees must provide Thai-language work rules covering hours, holidays, pay, leave, discipline, grievances and termination; those rules should also account for the separate 60-day notice obligation if machinery or technology later reduces staffing.

Onboarding checklist

• Put the employment contract and the intended work, workplace and pay-date terms in writing.
• Check the applicable daily wage against the employee’s province or district and the covered business type.
• Verify identity and, for a foreign national, the relevant work authorisation before the person works outside authorised rights.
• When the employee becomes insured, file SSO 1-03; determine the employer’s WCF business-risk class for its separate contribution.
• Record leave, working-time and overtime-consent rules in the employment materials.
• If there are 10 or more employees, issue the required Thai-language work rules.

If another party supplies workers for a client’s manufacturing or business operation outside an employment-services business, Section 11/1 can deem the client operator the employer regardless of who supervises or pays. Treat that as a fact-specific arrangement check, not as an automatic consequence of every provider or contractor relationship.

Which daily minimum wage applies in Thailand?

Thailand has no single national monthly minimum wage. Wage Committee Notification No. 14 sets a THB 337–400 / day range: identify the work province or district, then check whether the establishment is among the specified hotel or service businesses.

Bangkok, Chachoengsao, Chonburi, Phuket and Rayong use the THB 400 daily rate, as does Koh Samui District in Surat Thani; the district exception does not extend to all of Surat Thani. A specified hotel or service establishment in the notification also uses THB 400 nationwide. If neither branch applies, use the province or district schedule rather than carrying a Bangkok rate into another location.

Bangkok	THB 400 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14
Chachoengsao, Chonburi, Phuket or Rayong	THB 400 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14
Koh Samui District, Surat Thani	THB 400 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14
A specified hotel or service establishment, nationwide	THB 400 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14
Narathiwat, Pattani or Yala	THB 337 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14
Any other case	Follow the province or district schedule within THB 337–400 / day	Wage Committee Notification No. 14

Taxes and contributions

Personal income tax is progressive at 0–35% of annual taxable income, not a flat percentage of gross salary. The Revenue Department’s bands run from exempt income up to THB 150,000 to 35% on annual taxable income above THB 4 million, so a gross-salary figure alone does not establish the employee’s tax result.

For ordinary Section 33 coverage, the employer and employee each contribute 5.0% of covered wages. From 2026 through 2028, the monthly wage base is capped at THB 17,500, so each side’s maximum is THB 875 per month. The employer also has a separate Workmen’s Compensation Fund obligation at an assigned 0.2–1.0% annual risk rate on wages capped at THB 240,000; without the business risk class, that amount remains unpriced.

the label or name given to a payment is not determinative

— Shohei Sasaki, Partner and Head of Bangkok Office, and Yuyu Komine, co-author, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu

The substance and actual practice of a payment determine whether it counts as wages; its label alone does not. An allowance or incentive needs its own classification before a wage-linked obligation is calculated.

What an employee actually costs you

These comparisons add employer SSF to gross monthly wage. They exclude the unpriced WCF contribution, which depends on the assigned business-risk rate, and the Employee Welfare Fund, whose collection begins in 2027. The resulting subtotal is an SSF-only cost, not a full employment cost.

National private-employee mean, Q2 2026	Gross THB 14,533; employer SSF THB 726.65; SSF-only subtotal THB 15,259.65 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026; OECD Section 33; Royal Gazette cap
Bangkok private-employee mean, Q2 2026	Gross THB 19,049; employer SSF THB 875; SSF-only subtotal THB 19,924 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026; OECD Section 33; Royal Gazette cap
Bangkok information-and-communication private-employee mean, Q2 2026	Gross THB 31,148; employer SSF THB 875; SSF-only subtotal THB 32,023 / month	NSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026; OECD Section 33; Royal Gazette cap

The national mean falls below the current SSF cap; both Bangkok means exceed it. All three are employee-population averages, not role-level salaries.

Working time and overtime

Normal and designated hazardous work have different hour limits. Set ordinary hours and breaks in the employment terms, and deal separately with consent and premiums for overtime.

Normal work	Up to 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week	Labour Protection Act
Designated hazardous work	Up to 7 hours a day and 42 hours a week	Labour Protection Act
Rest during a working day	At least 1 hour after no more than 5 continuous working hours	Labour Protection Act
Overtime on a working day	Prior consent on each occasion is ordinarily required; at least 1.5× the hourly wage	Labour Protection Act
Overtime on a holiday	At least 3× the hourly wage	Labour Protection Act

Necessary continuous work, emergencies and prescribed work are exceptions to the ordinary working-day overtime consent requirement. The 1.5× premium applies to ordinary working-day overtime; the 3× premium applies to holiday overtime. Neither changes the normal-hours limit.

Leave, sick pay and parental leave

Annual leave, traditional holidays, sick leave and parental leave each have different triggers and pay rules. The parental figures below follow the enacted Act No. 9 amendment.

Annual leave	At least 6 working days after one uninterrupted year of employment	Labour Protection Act
Traditional holidays	At least 13 days announced by the employer each year, including National Labour Day	Labour Protection Act
Sick leave	Available when the employee is actually ill; employer-paid wages are capped at 30 working days a year	Labour Protection Act
Maternity leave	Up to 120 days per birth; the employer pays ordinary wages for up to 60 days	Act No. 9
Spouse-assistance leave	Up to 15 paid days to assist a spouse after childbirth, used within 90 days after the birth	Act No. 9
Newborn-care leave	A birth parent who has used maternity leave may take up to 15 consecutive additional days for a newborn with illness risk, abnormality or disability; employer pay is 50%	Act No. 9

The 120-day maternity entitlement includes up to 60 days of employer-paid ordinary wages. The additional newborn-care period follows maternity leave and requires the child's stated circumstances; it has its own 50% pay rule. Record each entitlement separately in the employment materials.

Termination: notice and payments

For an indefinite employment contract, termination follows the wage-payment-date notice mechanism and may also trigger severance based on continuous service. Thai law sets no maximum probation period, but probation is treated as indefinite employment and does not avoid the 120-day severance threshold.

Written notice given at or before a wage-payment date takes effect on the following wage-payment date; the required notice is Next pay date (≤3 months), not a universal 30-day rule. The employer may instead make payment in lieu of notice.

Continuous service	Statutory severance	Source
120 days to under 1 year	30 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act
1 year to under 3 years	90 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act
3 years to under 6 years	180 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act
6 years to under 10 years	240 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act
10 years to under 20 years	300 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act No. 7
20 years or more	400 days of final wages	Labour Protection Act No. 7

The severance bands measure days of final wages, not calendar days of notice. A genuine fixed-term contract can have a different exit rule, but a fixed-term label alone does not establish the statutory severance exception.

Technology-driven staffing reductions have their own rule: the employer must notify the labour inspector and affected employees at least 60 days in advance, giving the contemplated date, reasons and employee names. If that notice is short, 60 days of wages are due as special severance; this is not the rule for every redundancy.

Where a worker moves into a post-retirement consultancy, review the substance of the relationship rather than the contract title alone. Control, integration, exclusivity, supervision and economic dependence may matter to the status analysis.

Recent changes affecting Thai hires

• 1 July 2025 — Wage Committee Notification No. 14. The daily minimum-wage schedule applies THB 337–400 by province, district or covered hotel/service business; the THB 400 rate covers Bangkok, four whole provinces and Koh Samui District, not all of Surat Thani.
• 13 October 2025 — e-WorkPermit. Thailand’s nationwide online work-permit service began, while a service-centre appointment for biometric identity verification remains after approval.
• 7 December 2025 — Act No. 9 parental leave rules. Maternity leave increased to up to 120 days per birth, with up to 60 days of employer-paid ordinary wages; the Act also introduced spouse-assistance and conditional newborn-care leave.
• 1 January 2026 — Section 33 contribution base. For 2026–2028, the monthly wage base is THB 1,650–17,500, capping each employer and employee 5% contribution at THB 875 a month.
• 22 October 2026 — Employee Welfare Fund deferral. The Royal Decree postpones collection of employer and employee contributions until 1 January 2027, so it is not part of the current employer-cost calculation.

What a mistake costs and who pays

Work-permission offences carry different consequences for workers and employers. Supplied-worker status and termination duties raise separate employment obligations, shown by party and trigger below.

Party	Risk	Amount
Foreign worker	Works without a valid permit or beyond authorised rights	THB 5,000–50,000 fine; possible deportation and a two-year bar on applying for a permit
Employer or establishment	Hires an unauthorised foreign worker or allows work beyond authorised rights	THB 10,000–100,000 per worker
Employer or establishment, repeat offence	Repeats the foreign-worker offence	Up to 1 year imprisonment, THB 50,000–200,000 per worker, and a three-year bar on hiring foreign workers
Client operator	Receives supplied workers for its manufacturing or business operation outside an employment-services business, in the conditions of Section 11/1	May be deemed employer; comparable contract staff must receive fair, nondiscriminatory benefits. No monetary amount is stated in this rule.
Employer	Ends an indefinite employment contract without using the wage-payment-date notice process	Notice must reach the next pay date, or payment in lieu may be required; no single monetary total is stated here
Employer	Owes statutory severance on termination	30–400 days of final wages, depending on continuous service
Employer	Reduces staffing through machinery or technology without the required advance notice	60 days of wages as special severance where notice is short

Section 11/1 applies to the supplied-worker conditions in the statute, not every EOR or contractor arrangement. Severance also varies with service length and final wages, so the table cannot give one cash total.

Questions people actually ask

What is the minimum salary in Thailand?

Thailand’s statutory floor is a daily wage, and it varies by work location and covered business rather than operating as a national monthly minimum. Notification No. 14 sets THB 337–400 per day: confirm the province or district, then check whether the establishment falls within the specified hotel or service-business coverage.

What is the average monthly salary in Thailand?

The Q2 2026 national private-employee mean is THB 14,533 / month, while the Bangkok private-employee mean is THB 19,049 a month. The national figure includes daily wage workers and labourers, so neither broad mean is a role-specific offer or a statutory minimum.

Can a foreign company hire in Thailand without setting up a company?

The available routes are a Thai entity, an employer of record, or a genuinely independent contractor. An EOR is not a standalone statutory category in Thailand, and a supplied-worker arrangement still needs a Section 11/1 assessment on its facts. An independent engagement should be for an agreed result rather than an employment relationship labelled differently.

Does a foreign employee need a Thai work permit?

A foreign national working without a valid permit, or beyond authorised rights, faces statutory consequences, so the applicable work-authorisation route must be checked before work begins. The nationwide e-WorkPermit service began on 13 October 2025, but its online application route does not state an approval-time commitment and a biometric appointment follows approval.

How much does Thai social security add to salary?

For ordinary Section 33 coverage, the employer contribution is 5.0% of covered monthly wages, capped at THB 875 on the THB 17,500 monthly wage base for 2026–2028. That is the SSF component only; WCF depends on the employer’s assigned business-risk class.

Is probation a way to avoid severance?

No. Thailand has no statutory maximum probation length, but probation is treated as indefinite employment and does not avoid statutory severance after 120 days of service.

How much notice must an employer give?

For an indefinite employment contract, written notice given at or before a wage-payment date takes effect on the next wage-payment date, with no requirement for more than three months’ notice. The timing is tied to the pay date, so it is not a universal 30-day rule.

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