Thailand employment rules 2025–2026: three new costs and one new report

01Change one: leave entitlements are up (already in force)

If your Thailand headcount budget is still built on the numbers from two years ago, this page is worth a read. Three cost changes plus one filing obligation, all inside the past year, and nobody will tell you about any of them.

Amendment No. 9 to the Labour Protection Act came into force on 7 December 2025. The main changes:

• Total maternity leave goes up, and the portion the employer pays at full salary goes up with it (the rest is paid by the social security fund).
• Paternity leave for the spouse is new — at full pay, usable within a defined period before the spouse gives birth or after the child is born.
• Post-natal childcare leave is new, for cases where the newborn has complications, a disability or a health risk. It is paid at a portion of salary and needs a medical certificate.

The exact number of days and the payment proportions follow the Ministry of Labour rules in force. For a factory with a large workforce these stack up into a measurable effect on the annual labour bill, and that belongs in the budget rather than being worked out one case at a time.

A note on dates: much of the Chinese-language material still in circulation uses the pre-amendment maternity leave figures. When you see a number like 98 days, check when that material was written.

02Change two: a mandatory employee welfare fund (already in force)

The Employee Welfare Fund took effect on 1 October 2025. It applies to businesses employing a certain number of staff. Employer and employee each contribute a percentage of wages, and the rate steps up a notch after a number of years.

Three things that matter in practice:

• Companies that already run a provident fund or an equivalent welfare plan can be exempt. This is the first thing to confirm — it decides whether you contribute at all.
• Contributions and filings run on monthly deadlines, with penalties for late or incomplete submission. When an employee resigns, is dismissed or their contract ends, the employer also has to file an employment change form within a set period.
• Failing to file the employee list on time, failing to update it, or filing false information carries penalties that include imprisonment — not only fines. HR should know this one.

Rates, headcount thresholds and the various deadlines follow the official announcements in force. One more thing: whether these contributions are deductible before tax has not been settled, and the treatment is not the same as for the provident fund. Do not assume either way when you work out the tax position.

03Change three: the social security contribution base rises in stages from 2026

The wage ceiling used to calculate social security contributions rises in three stages from 2026, and the monthly contribution cap for both employer and employee rises with it. The same rules also standardise the minimum wage base for contributions. Ceiling and floor are two parameters of one set of rules; do not treat them as the same thing.

What it means for an employer: social security cost on mid- and higher-paid roles climbs step by step — and it is foreseeable and can be worked out in advance, because the three stage dates are defined. Draw the steps into a three-year headcount budget instead of reacting each time one lands. The amounts at each stage follow the Social Security Office announcements in force. For the underlying framework, see how employment, work permits and social security work in Thailand.

04The form most often missed: the employer's annual employment report

This one costs nothing, but it goes on your compliance record. The amendment changed the employer's employment report from "submit it when a labour inspector asks in writing" to a mandatory annual filing: employers above a certain headcount have to submit an annual employment report to the competent authority every January.

Why Chinese-invested companies miss it: it is a new obligation, so it is not on anyone's old calendar; it falls in January, crowded in with year-end closing and Chinese New Year; and nothing happens straight away if you skip it. By the time someone asks, a record has already built up.

One thing worth doing now: put it on the company's annual compliance calendar, managed next to the tax filing calendar, with a named owner. Of everything on this page it costs the least and is the most likely to be missed.

05How to check whether any of this reaches you

Whether each of the four applies depends on your headcount, your salary structure, whether you already run a provident fund, and whether you employ foreign nationals. The sensible move is a single review: confirm item by item whether each applies, work out the cost increment, and put the new filing obligation on the calendar. The review is not complicated, but someone has to own it — the cost of skipping it is finding out three months from now that you have been under-contributing for half a year.

Which of the four reach your company, how much they add, and whether a gap has already opened up all have to be checked item by item against the payroll register, the salary structure and the benefit arrangements already in place. Related reading: terminating an employee in Thailand.