Non-Cash Benets of Employees in Thai Public Universities

Abstract

This article investigates the differences in compensations for two types of workers in Thai public universities: university employees and government officials. While the former group receives higher monthly salaries, they will not receive a pension after retirement and are entitled to less generous health benefits. In doing so, non-cash benefits for both groups are calculated based on the values of health benefits that university employees receive under the Social Security Scheme (SSS) and government officials receive under the under the Civil Service Medical Benefits Scheme (CSMBS). Results suggest that, even if university employees’ salaries are 1.51.7 times government officials’ salaries, the sum of both cash and non-cash benefits that government officials receive are still greater than that of university employees, particular among those who are 50 years old or older.  In addition, the net present values of lifetime earnings for government officials are significantly greater than that of university employees. This is due to much greater value of lifetime health benefits provided by the CSMBS. The finding suggests that the difference in monetary terms that university employees receive cannot replace the health benefits that government officials gain from the CSMBS. Hence, in order to retain and attract good and capable workers in public universities, there is an urgent need to improve the welfare system for university employees in such a way that it is at least comparable to the welfare of government officials or that of state-enterprise employees