ALLOWANCE RATES AND UTILITY OF BENEFITS FOR WORKING IN NEW ASEAN COUNTRIES OF THAI ENGINEER

Abstract

This research aimed to explore the allowance rate per month required by engineers for working in new ASEAN Countries (CLMV), which consist of Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam. Thai engineers who possessed 10 years of experience or more and worked in construction, real estate development, engineering consultancy, and manufacturing segment, in Bangkok and surrounding areas of Chonburi and Rayong were selected as a sample group, using Accidental Sampling Technique. The data were collected from January to April 2018. The results showed that the allowance rate per month that the sample group, which consist of 121 engineers, required was 10,000-300,000 Baht per month, with the mode of 30,000 Baht per month, the median of 50,000 Baht per month and an average of 59,446 Baht per month. The result from the median test by means of the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that the differences in marital status, household salaries, expenses, business industry, and education fields, had significant impacts on Thai engineers’ requirements for the allowance. The utility of benefits estimated by means of Conjoint Analysis revealed the following significant incentives for engineers:  earning an extra allowance of 30,000 Baht per month, earning an extra salary of 5,000 Baht, having health insurance and accident insurance abroad, changing from a 30 square meter room with a roommate to a 60 square meter room without a roommate with a housemaid, and having additional 10 days of leave per year, respectively.