The Employee Welfare Fund starts on 1 October 2026

The Employee Welfare Fund is a savings arrangement: part is deducted from the wages of the employee and the employer contributes the same amount, so that the employee has a lump sum on leaving or on death. The fund has been in the Labour Protection Act since 1998, but collection never began, because it waited on a royal decree fixing the start date. That decree has now been issued and collection begins on 1 October 2026.

The start date has been put back before, most recently from October 2025 to October 2026, so many businesses have been waiting to see whether it would slip again. There has been no further postponement, and the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare opened online registration for advance filing in mid September 2026.

Which businesses have to join?

• Those with ten or more employees, counting every category: monthly, daily-rate, temporary, probationary and migrant workers.
• Every employee who is not yet a member of a provident fund, or of a scheme the employer runs on the terms the law lays down.

The provident fund exemption works employee by employee, not business by business. Any employee who is not in the provident fund, because they are still on probation or chose not to join, must still be entered in the Employee Welfare Fund and contributions remitted for them. This is the point most often misunderstood: many employers believe that having a provident fund exempts the whole company.

Some kinds of work fall outside these provisions altogether, among them sea fishing, domestic work not connected with a business, and the work of foundations or associations that do not seek economic profit.

How much is deducted, and from what?

• From 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2031 the employee has 0.25 per cent of wages deducted and the employer contributes a further 0.25 per cent.
• From 1 October 2031 the rate becomes 0.5 per cent on each side.
• The base is wages for normal working time, with no ceiling of the kind that applies to social security contributions.

Overtime, holiday pay and bonuses are not remuneration for normal working time and do not form part of the base. A sum paid every period without condition as remuneration for ordinary work, such as a cost of living allowance paid at the same amount each month, generally does count as wages and must be included. What matters is the basis on which each payment is actually made, not the label it carries on the payslip.

The Department uses this illustration: an employee on 12,000 Baht a month has 30 Baht deducted, the employer adds 30 Baht, and 60 Baht is remitted for that employee each month.

How do you register and remit?

• Register through the electronic service of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, which has accepted advance filings since 15 September 2026.
• File the list of employees, then keep the registration certificate the Department issues to show a labour inspector.
• An employer who has already filed the employee registration forms with the Social Security Office is treated as having filed for this fund as well, but must still report every change in the list of employees.
• Deduct at each payment of wages and remit by the fifteenth of the following month, so wages for October 2026 must be remitted by 15 November 2026.
• Remit to the provincial or area labour welfare and protection office where the business is located, not to the Social Security Office.
• Have each employee name the person to receive the money on death at the outset, to avoid a dispute between heirs later.

What to do before the first period

• Count every category of employee: monthly, daily-rate and probationary.
• Work out which payments count as wages and which do not, since this affects the base for this fund and for other contributions.
• Set the deduction up in payroll before the October run.
• Tell employees in writing what will be deducted and at what rate, so that no one can later say wages were deducted without authority.
• Keep the remittance records for every period.

What happens if you do not do it?

Failing to deduct or remit does not end the duty. The shortfall remains a liability of the business and carries a surcharge of 5 per cent a month on the amount not remitted, with part of a month of fifteen days or more counted as a whole month. An employer cannot escape liability by saying that nothing was deducted from the employee.

If the arrears continue, a labour inspector issues a written demand and may assess the amount where the true figure is not known. If it is still not paid, assets may be seized, attached and sold by auction. Failing to file the registration is a criminal offence in its own right. In practice the problem surfaces when an employee resigns or is dismissed and claims this money together with severance, which is the hardest moment at which to settle.

How is this different from severance?

Severance is paid by the employer itself, only where the employee is dismissed without having committed one of the faults the law lists, and is calculated on length of service. The money from this fund is paid by the Department out of the savings and contributions held, together with the return on them, and the employee receives it on leaving employment for any reason, including resignation, retirement and dismissal for misconduct. The two are not substitutes for one another.

This note states the general position and is not advice on your own business. The wage base and the headcount depend on the facts of each workplace. Send us your wage structure and headcount and we will check whether the fund applies to you.