Hiring in Thailand in 2026: Cheap to Employ, Costly to Let Go
Employer contributions on a Thai salary are small, but severance starts at day 120 and climbs to 400 days’ pay. We re-priced a ฿50,000 offer under the 2026 social security base, mapped all 17 provincial minimum wage rates and worked out severance in baht for four lengths of service.
Five numbers to have ready before the offer goes out
Four costing errors that skew a Thailand offer
Three Thai payroll rules changed between December 2025 and January 2026, and the old figures still circulate in templates and spreadsheets. The social security cap is the easiest to miss, because the rate itself never moved.
Capping social security at the old ฿750
Since 1 January 2026 the employer pays 5% of wages up to ฿17,500, so the monthly maximum is ฿875. Budgeting at ฿750 leaves out ฿125 a month, or ฿1,500 a year for every employee above the base.
Charging 5% social security on the whole salary
The 5% stops at the ฿17,500 wage base in force since January 2026, which is why the add-on falls as pay rises. On an ฿80,000 salary an uncapped 5% books ฿4,000 a month, when the full statutory add-on with the welfare fund and Workmen’s Comp is ฿1,235.
Pricing maternity leave at 98 days with 45 paid
Since 7 December 2025 the leave is 120 days, and the employer pays the first 60. On a ฿50,000 salary the old rule understates each birth by ฿25,000.
Stopping the severance scale at 240 days
Section 118 has paid 300 days after ten years and 400 days after twenty since the 2019 amendment. A contract that stops at 240 days understates a ten-year exit on ฿50,000 by ฿100,000, and a twenty-year exit by ฿266,667. Our exit cards below have the full figures.
Rates and tiers as in force on 22 October 2026. The welfare fund is counted at 0.25% and Workmen’s Compensation at the 0.2% office rate.
A ฿50,000 hire now costs ฿3,000 more a year in contributions
Thailand’s social security wage base sat at ฿15,000 for years. It rose to ฿17,500 on 1 January 2026, and the new Employee Welfare Fund adds 0.25% of pay. Small amounts, but both land on every payslip.
Offer priced in 2025
Base ฿15,000Same offer from January 2027
Base ฿17,500The welfare fund date has moved twice. A September 2025 decree set 1 October 2026. On 14 October 2026 the Cabinet approved a final delay to 1 January 2027, but that isn’t in the Royal Gazette yet, so the October date is still the law. Ask your provider which date its Thai payroll is using.
Social security at 5% of wages up to the base. The welfare fund applies to employers with 10 or more staff and no registered provident fund, which covers most EORs. The same Labour Protection Act amendment raised employer-paid maternity leave from 45 to 60 days, about ฿25,000 more per birth on this salary.
Year one for a ฿600,000 developer, at three EOR price points
The baht costs are fixed by law and don’t change with the provider. The fee is what differs, so the table keeps the two apart and leaves the fee in dollars, the currency most providers bill in.
Dollar fees drift with the baht. At 33.67 baht to the dollar on 22 October 2026, a $599 fee is about ฿20,170 a month. Deel’s own Thailand guide gives its yearly fee as ฿234,329, which works out at 32.6 to the dollar against its $599 list price. Baht quotes from different dates won’t match.
Not in these totals: a deposit, which some providers ask for upfront, setup or exit fees, and any provident fund or health cover you offer on top. Our Thailand EOR ranking lists what each provider publishes.
Check any Thai salary against the 2026 rules
Thailand is already selected. Type a monthly gross salary in baht to see each employer contribution line, then add a provider’s fee for the full monthly cost.
Seventeen minimum wages, set by province and district
Thailand has no single national minimum. The Wage Committee sets a daily rate for each province, and some districts get their own. The rate follows where the work is done, so a remote hire in Khon Kaen is paid against Khon Kaen’s rate, not Bangkok’s.
Bangkok’s ฿400 rate dates from 1 July 2025 under Notification No. 14, and we found no 2026 revision as of 22 October. Rates of ฿313 to ฿336 come from the schedule replaced in 2024, so any quote built on them is out of date. One adviser table puts the ฿380 rate in Hat Yai, while the Ministry of Labour release says Mueang Songkhla district. Check the district on the contract.
Rates from Wage Committee Notification No. 14, in force from 1 July 2025 and unchanged for 2026. Six of the 17 rates shown. Hotels of grades 2 to 4 and licensed entertainment venues pay ฿400 nationwide. Monthly figures use 30 days, the divisor for monthly-paid staff. Checked 22 October 2026.
How many hires before a Thai company is cheaper
Deel publishes its own Thailand cost estimates. It puts an entity at ฿1,330,895 a year to run, plus ฿3,114,571 to set up, against ฿234,329 a year in EOR fees per employee.
Scale: ฿5 million a year. Entity figures are Deel’s published Thailand estimates, last updated 17 July 2026. EOR fee is Deel’s published ฿234,329 a year per employee.
From the second year, six people on an EOR cost more in fees than running your own company. In year one, setup pushes that point out to about nineteen. Thailand adds hurdles the arithmetic leaves out. Foreign ownership is usually capped at 49% outside BOI promotion, and each work permit needs about ฿2 million of paid-up capital and four Thai staff behind it. Most foreign employers start on an EOR and move staff across once the team is large and settled.
Deel’s ฿3,114,571 setup figure includes the capital injection, and that money stays in the company as cash. Take it out and year one breaks even well before nineteen. The six-person point on running costs alone sits inside the 6 to 8 range we give in our Thailand EOR ranking.
Which EOR is the legal employer in Thailand
The company on the Thai contract is the one the Social Security Office and the Labour Court deal with. We read each provider’s own Thailand pages. Only two of the ten we rank say they own a Thai entity.
A provider’s global entity count tells you little about Thailand. Multiplier’s review lists Thailand among its Asian entities, but its Thailand page never names the Thai employer, so we count it as not stated. Pebl and Globalization Partners both claim large owned networks without confirming a Thai company.
Headquartered in Singapore with support in Asian hours. Ask it to name the Thai employing entity in writing.
Its own Thailand guide says Thai staff sit on a wholly owned Deel entity. Bills month to month.
No setup, onboarding or termination fee. A local partner holds the contract, so ask which one.
States an owned Thai entity on its Thailand page and assigns IP to you by contract.
Prices are published starting fees per employee per month, checked on vendor sites in October 2026. Multiplier’s rate is for monthly billing.
See all 10 ranked providersSeverance in baht, from the first month to ten years
For an employee on ฿50,000 a month, dismissed without cause, with one month’s notice paid in lieu. Severance starts on day 120, not after a year, which is why so many Thai contracts end probation at 119 days.
Worked through on ฿50,000, the ten-year tier comes to ฿500,000 and the twenty-year tier to ฿666,667. The 400-day tier was added in 2019. A Thai contract template that stops at 240 days is short by ฿100,000 on a ten-year exit, so it needs checking.
The full scale under Section 118: 30 days’ pay from 120 days of service, 90 days from one year, 180 days from three, 240 days from six, 300 days from ten and 400 days from twenty years, which is ฿666,667 on this salary. Daily pay for a monthly employee is monthly pay divided by 30. Unused annual leave is paid out on top. Serious misconduct under Section 119 removes severance, but courts read that section narrowly.
Five signs a Thai contractor is really an employee
Thai courts separate a hire of service, which is employment, from a hire of work, which pays for a result. They look at who directs the work and how pay is set. Each yes below points toward employment, with back social security and severance owed.
Do you decide their hours or where they work?
Yes adds riskCan you discipline them or hold them to your work rules?
Yes adds riskAre they paid for time worked rather than a finished deliverable?
Yes adds riskDo they work on your laptop, email and systems?
Yes adds riskHave they worked only for you, with no other clients, for months?
Yes adds riskTools and guides for a Thailand team
How we researched this guide
Co-founder and Editor, HR Stacks
Manjuri runs the editorial process behind our provider reviews and country hiring guides. She has more than ten years of editorial experience, the last five spent on employer of record and global employment.
More from Manjuri- We worked out every baht figure ourselves from the December 2025 Ministerial Regulation on the social security wage base and Section 118 of the Labour Protection Act.
- We read the minimum wage schedule district by district. We checked Notification No. 14 against the Ministry of Labour’s own release and confirmed with two adviser sources that no 2026 revision has been published.
- We read each provider’s own Thailand page in October 2026 to see who holds the employment contract, and used the scores from our Thailand EOR ranking.
- We worked every scenario through to a final figure. That covers the four exits, the year-one budget at three fee levels and the break-even headcount, each run twice before it went on the page.
- We recheck the page when a rule changes. Next up is the Royal Gazette notice on the welfare fund delay, then any new Wage Committee notification.
Thailand hiring questions, answered in baht
How much social security does an employer pay in Thailand in 2026?
What is the minimum wage in Bangkok?
How much severance is owed after five years in Thailand?
Does the Employee Welfare Fund start in October 2026?
How much income tax does someone on ฿50,000 a month pay?
How long does a Thai work permit take?
When is my own Thai company cheaper than an EOR?
Price your first Thailand hire
Ten employer of record providers, ranked on what they charge in Thailand, who holds the Thai contract and how they scored on eight parameters.