Thailand Raises Social Security Wage Ceiling to THB 17,500, Effective January 2026

Thailand's Cabinet-approved increase to the Social Security Fund's maximum contribution wage base was published in the Royal Gazette on December 12, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026, raising the long-standing THB 15,000 wage ceiling to THB 17,500 per month for the first time in decades. For a foreign investor operating a Thai FDA or DTAM cannabis license-holding entity, this is a direct, per-employee increase in a fixed statutory payroll cost that applies to every staff member on the books, and it is the first of two scheduled increases already written into the regulation.

The Exact Figures, Both Phases

The change runs in two phases. Phase 1, covering January 2026 through December 2028, sets the maximum monthly wage subject to Social Security contribution at THB 17,500, up from THB 15,000. Since the contribution rate itself remains 5% split between employer and employee, the maximum monthly employer contribution rises from THB 750 to THB 875 per employee, an increase of THB 125 per employee per month, or THB 1,500 per employee per year. Phase 2, covering January 2029 through December 2031, raises the ceiling further to THB 20,000 per month, which will push the maximum employer contribution to THB 1,000 per employee per month at that point.

The wage ceiling increase also raises the benefits calculated against it. Monthly sickness, disability, and unemployment benefits rise from a maximum of THB 7,500 to THB 8,750, and the childbirth benefit rises from THB 22,500 to THB 26,250. These are the amounts an insured employee can now draw against the fund, and they scale up automatically as the wage ceiling itself rises in 2029.

What This Means in Real Payroll Terms

For any employee already earning THB 17,500 per month or more, which covers essentially the entire professional and mid-level staff of a Thai FDA or DTAM cannabis license-holding entity, the employer's maximum Social Security contribution simply increases by THB 125 per employee per month starting January 1, 2026. That is a modest figure at the level of a single employee, but it compounds across headcount in a way worth modeling explicitly rather than absorbing as an afterthought. A client scaling a Thailand entity from, for example, 10 employees to 30 employees over the next two years should build the higher THB 875 ceiling into that growth plan now, and should note that a further step to THB 1,000 per employee is already scheduled for 2029, well within the planning horizon of most license-holding operations.

This increase also compounds with a second, separate new payroll layer: the Employee Welfare Fund, which requires a 0.25% contribution from both employer and employee for companies with ten or more staff that do not already offer a comparable benefit, rising to 0.50% by 2031. That obligation was originally due to start October 1, 2025 and has been postponed to October 1, 2026, and is covered in full in its own article. Together, the two changes mean a foreign investor planning headcount growth at a Thai FDA or DTAM-licensed entity is now looking at two separate, additive statutory payroll increases landing within the same planning window, not one.

The Practical Takeaway

Neither of these figures is large enough on its own to change a hiring decision, but both are real, dated, and now in force or scheduled, and a business plan or budget built before December 2025 that still assumes a THB 750 Social Security ceiling per employee is already out of date. Getting payroll and statutory-cost projections right from the start of a Thailand entity's operation, alongside the entity formation and license-holding structure itself, is part of how DeeMED supports clients setting up and operating a Thai company to hold a Thai FDA or DTAM cannabis license.