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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

Of total net income in the 600 records, 87% was employment income,
meaning wages and salaries. Income from dividends and interest was only
7.5 percent. Business and other income was 3 percent and income from royalties,

professional fees, contracting and rents was insignificant (see Table 1).

Table 1 Income sources of the top 600 records in RD’s 0.3 percent sample
for 2012

Net income (Baht)
Income source (%)
average per filer
Employment 2,215,185 86.8
Royalties 429 0.0
Interest & dividends 190,458 7.5
Rents 35,598 1.4
Professional fees 27,024 1.1
Contracting 7,761 0.3
Business and other 75,741 3.0
All sources 2,552,196 100.0

The reported level of employment income may be fairly realistic.
Average gross employment income for the top 600 forms before deduction of
expenses was about 3.7 million baht per year which is comparable to salaries paid
to top officials in the public sector. For example in the mid-2010s the three top
ranking positions of dean, deputy rector and rector in a leading public university

received a basic annual salary of 2.4, 3.0 and 3.6 million baht respectively.
Top executive salaries in the business sector would be higher , especially in
8
banking and finance.
But neither the income level nor the structure of income sources shown
in Table 1 represent the real picture of the top 1 percent of Thailand’s population,
who are mostly businessmen and their family members, executives in big
business corporations and high bureaucrats. These groups receive income from

many sources and unearned income from investments of various types is an
important part of their income. But dividends and interest incomes are not well

8 For top executives in the top 100 firms listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), annual
salary could be as high as 20-30 million baht.

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Francis Cripps and Pasuk Phongpaichit

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