Whydo so many girls prostitute themselves and is it worth it to work as a sex massage girl? The short answer: It depends. If she's an average looking girl, over 30-35, she most likely won't be working in higher class massage parlors that attract clients that are willing to pay more. Rather, she might work a 12-14 hours shift in a regular massage shop, that allows her offer clients a special massage (i.e. HJ, BJ, full service) to earn a few more bucks. So, how much money do Bangkok sex massage girls make? Let's do the math.

The average looking woman, simple massage shop

Assuming a massage price of 250 -300 THB, she'll earn 100-200 just for the massage per hour, while the shop keeps the rest. The charge for 'extras' are approximately 500, 800-1000 and 1000-1500 for a handjob, blowjob and sex, respectively. On average, she will do at least 3 handjobs and one full sex session per day. This equals:

3 x 150 (massage only)

+3 x 500 THB (Handjob)

+ 1000 THB (full sex service)

=> 2,950 THB / day.

Assuming that she has her period and a few days off, she will work maximum 20 days per month, which equals to a net income of 59,000 THB on average per month. If we compare her to a 7-11 clerk who works in a 10-12 hour shift, earning only 15,000-18,000 THB, we see a good comparison of how much this money is in Thailand. We get an idea why to many women who have no education ( to those who have no prospect of getting a proper job), it can be so lucrative to work as a sex massage girl.

In comparison with a 7-11 clerk, not only does this massage girl have more money for herself, but also, she can send a decent amount of money to her family to support them financially. In return, her family will respect her, will be proud of her. Often, these girls tell their families that they work at a normal massage shop, restaurant or hotel. Of course, her family will not bother her with any annoying question on where all this money comes from.

On the other hand, the downside of the medal is, that she gives up her pride and dignity, accepting to be labeled as a 'bad girl' in society for having sex even with men she wouldn't even look at, under normal circumstances.

The pretty looking woman, Massage shop with sexy girls, Soapy massage parlor

Above average looking 'pretty' and sexy girls work in higher class establishments where men are willing to pay more for the girls. I recently had a chat with a girl who works at a sex massage parlor in one of the side alleys of Sukhumvit Soi 22. While just having a casual conversation, she revealed to me that she works in such an establishment. She didn't tell me this to attract me as a customer. Rather, it was because I was curious and our chat was kind of funny. She is an attractive girl in her early 20s with pale skin and breast implants. Her family is from somewhere around Bangkok. And she is financing her family's new house.

After a while I couldn't help but asking her how many clients she has on average. The answer was 4-5 customers per day who pay around 3,000 THB. So let's do the math again:

5 x 3,000 THB =15,000 THB per day.

Assuming she works 20 days per month, she will end up having 300,000 THB at the end of the month. Tip is not included. However, she told me that she pays for the establishment as well. So that she has more than 200,000 THB. Moreover, these places offer their girls to stay there for free. Thus, she won't even pay any rent. Given that rent for a small apartment room is not more than 7,000 THB, it actually doesn't make much sense to stay in a dorm of a massage shop with other girls, without privacy only to save a few bucks. It seems like some girls really try to squeeze the last penny of this situation.

I believe that this amount of money, which, by the way, is more than what an engineer earns after taxes in the US or Europe, is extremely lucrative from many girls' point of view. Rather than working their ass off in a convenience store or as a waitress for 20 years without advancing financially, they think it's easy money to work for a few years in the sex industry and save up decent money to buy properties or open a business.

The downside of this business

However, they often ignore the negative effects that come along with becoming a prostitute. These girls ignore the fact that once a women enters sex business, she will be labeled as a bad girl for lifetime. No decent (and smart) man will ever accept to be in a serious relationship with an ex-prostitute.
Furthermore, she will become emotionally drained and numb, seeing only an ATM when looking at men. Her attitude and behavior might change.
Quickly, material things and money will become a main goal in her life. Seeing that money is easily earned by offering sex, she most likely won't go back to an honest but strenuous regular job. Once used to this standard of living, she might keep working in this work to continue her luxury lifestyle.

Years later, after her beauty has faded, she will face the fact that she won't be making enough money as she did before.  However, when big money is involved in short term, negative long term effects will be easily ignored by people. To continue, she will either have to work in lower class establishments as she becomes less attractive. Another option will be to find a sponsor. That is usually an old, unattractive, foreign man who will believe her lies and keep pumping money to her.