State, Capitalism and Social Structure: The Obstacles of Raising the Minimum Wage in Thailand

Abstract

Much of the research relating to the minimum wage is presented by mainly two perspectives of economists: the proponents support the minimum wage increase and the opponents disagree with it. Those economists, nevertheless, pay attention only to the impacts of raising the minimum wage while overlook the study of state, capitalism and the social form (structure) which can be obstacles or opportunities for the increase of minimum wage. This research, therefore, will examine state, capitalism and social structure from the perspective of political economy, which is the force determining the economic structure of society. The main argument of this research proposes that the form of labour is not the essence of capitalism; conversely, capitalism needs a social form of wage labour. In such a society, workers are dominated, oppressed, and exploited, e.g. exploitation of wages and welfare, and the exploitation is transferred into profits to the capitalists in full measure. For this reason, the wage labour society is the form of society that the capitalists aspire to construct and stabilize as long as possible, and in which the “surplus value” is appropriated by the capitalists. The results of the study show that: firstly, the state and the capitalists are the key variables for the minimum wage adjustment, and secondly, the state and the capitalists play an important role in structuring the social form.