Job Discussion Forums

elliot_spencer · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 495

does anyone have any info on this school? How about current info on Tallinn? Salary seems low at 600E .

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

Is that 600 net? What about flat and other expenses? The average gross salary in Estonia is a bit over 1000 euros a month.

elliot_spencer · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 495

No flat and yes 600 net - for 80 hours a month plus 12.75 for every hour over 89 un a month.

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

I don't think that the average salary is 1000 euros a month... I knew a public high school teacher who was on 800 euros a month. How much for peeps in MacDonalds or Burger King??

Teachers are just about making around 1000 euros a month at Tallinn University. The salaries in Estonia are rock bottom and that is why I left after a few months of enjoying myself.

Even so, the salary quoted seems a little low. I don't know about quals/experience but around 11-13 euros seems the average per hour before tax..

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

Yes, a good statistic but as my examples show, somewhat misleading.. How can a public high school teacher (Estonian born) only be on 800 euros a month? If she became a form tutor it would rise to 850 euros a month!

The average as calculated by the government is heavily skewered by the IT/Financial Services sectors and many people on the ground are not even earning close to 1000 euros a month.

jonniboy · Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 3:45 pm Post subject:

jonniboy · Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 3:51 pm Post subject:

ILS used to have branches in the three Baltic capitals, but the one in Riga went bust about 5 years ago and the feedback from people I knew who worked there wasn't great, basically that they were attempting to be a serious language centre, but paying peanuts.

Are those 80 hours academic hours or clock hours? Even if it's academic hours, that works out at 10 euro net per clock hour, which is way too low. Most language schools here in Riga pay 11-12 net per 60 minutes and the prices here are a bit lower than Estonia.

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

GF, I only left Estonia barely two months ago!

Okay, I understand you have the experience and knowledge from living x amount of years in Estonia. I am not challenging you or calling you wrong as much as sharing my view which is that wages are very low in Estonia..

Jonniboy, as for public school teachers being a bad example, I disagree. Are you saying that MacDonalds workers or hotel staff are going to be better paid than teachers? Post-Soviet is post-Soviet for everyone..

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

current affairs, then how do you know so little about salary amounts if you were here so recently? Where did you work?

If your friend is really making only 800 a month and is a full-time teacher in the public school system, then not only is he/she getting ripped off, it is illegal and actionable. I don't doubt that it is possible because so many schools were underpaying teachers in the past that a big investigation was launched that resulted in the current salary levels that my colleagues and I are now enjoying.

Btw, there is a public school that pays an average of 1300 a month (it's not in Tallinn). School directors have the power to pay as much as the school can afford and a teacher is worth. Some schools have more financial resources than others. I have received some very tempting offers but they were all outside of Tallinn. I don't want to move out of the city and they were too far away to effectively commute, so they were a no go.

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

I was looking at an Estonian job website and it was interesting to see the discrepancy in pay. A bank teller at Swedbank will be offered 600 euros a month. A junior software developer for Skype will earn around 1600 euros and a senior software developer 3800 euros.. I think I am sounding like Jeremy Corbyn a bit now but there are some very large gaps there.

I did quite a lot of work in Tallinn and had a few job interviews (2015). I really like the place but the pay was pretty poor. As I mentioned above, it seemed that language schools offered 11-13 euros an hour for part-time work. I did some work at the university as well as I am well qualified and the full-timers were just hitting the 1000 euros a month mark. So, 850 euros a month for a high school teacher seems perfectly normal to me..

As with anywhere, if you stay longer, like yourself, then you can get better deals and work your way up the ladder. I would be interested to hear what the hourly rate/average salary at your schools is if you care to share!

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

University pay and public school pay are totally unrelated. I had a chance to teach English at Tartu University but I was making twice as much already teaching in a high school in Tallinn, so no way.

Regarding the low pay, it is not as bad as it seems as a lot of things are fairly cheap here. My electric bill is still several times lower than what I paid back in the states in the 1990s. We have free medical care and free public transportation. I go on multiple trips abroad every year.

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

I thought the rent was quite high relative to earnings. For foreigners, you would probably get a place for 300-400 euros a month in Tallinn with some searching. For the really cheap rents in the old Soviet blocks you could maybe get a place for 250 euros but this is rare. Lots of students are paying 300 euros just for a room in a shared apartment.

If, as I still maintain, teaching salaries are hovering around 800-1000 euros then you are spending a lot of money.. The average salary you quoted is more than likely a simple average that doesn't really factor in what the rest of the country are earning in real terms, i.e. it is not a weighted average that takes into account the variable.

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

Rents are high now because we are in the middle of a local property bubble. 2 years ago, they were ridiculously low in comparison.

Regarding incomes, I know what you are saying about weighted averages but the fact remains that teachers average 1000 a month these days. If one is married or has a live-in partner, all the better. Most locals live in privatized flats/houses, so they only pay bills. No mortgage or rent payments for them.