Informal Workers in Urban Thailand: A Statistical Snapshot

The Government of Thailand has put in place programmes that extend social security coverage to workers in the informal economy. Additional legal protections are provided to domestic workers and homeworkers through the Ministerial Regulation of Domestic Workers Protection and the Homeworker Protection Act (which applies only to home-based industrial outworkers, called homeworkers). However, not all workers are aware of these programmes and for some workers, social security plans are limited and are available only on a voluntary basis and only if they pay into the plan. As a result, informal employment continues to be an important share of the labour force in Thailand and in its cities.