Job Discussion Forums

[vabeckele]

What is the norm for part-time payment?

I have 5, 45 minute lessons to give a total of 3.75 hours and that is exactly what I will get paid for. Is this normal, or should a teacher get paid for each 45 minute lesson as a full hour?

I thank you for your advice in advance.

[tttompatz]

[spiral78]

[vabeckele]

Well, as for standards...

I am in Vietnam, working for a university. This particular uni is the lowest paying one (for me). I work for another that pays quite a bit more.

I just have it at the back of my mind that an academic hour is 45 minutes?

As for payment, over here you will get a different figure for each teacher, that is, unless one is working for advanced economy foreign schools and universities - Negotiation is par for the course.

[tttompatz]

[spiral78]

I've worked for universities where an academic hour is 50 minutes, and for others where an academic hour is 60 minutes. It's really not standard worldwide, and you will likely get better responses on the Vietnam board, or maybe General Asia.

[vabeckele]

[vabeckele]

[Glenski]

At the risk of sounding too serious when people may be joking, what sort of "standard pay" did you think was worldwide, spiral?

Countries will vary on their own cost of living, for one thing.

vabeckele,
Pick a country so you get relevant replies.

[vabeckele]

I was teaching teachers in a remote place, with no knowledge of it, for 7.5 hours a day. The employer only paid for the actual hours worked. No break, nothing.

In my estimate, that is a full day's work and I guess some kind of compensation could be in order, considering - I had no idea as to where I could get a good meal; I asked if the employer could at least find and pay for a meal (a buck or 2) in between lessons and I got fired!

Any opinions?

Let's just assume I was far away from 'the West'. And as my current query states i am not doing a full day's work...maybe asking for a glass of water may break the proverbial camel's back.

[Sashadroogie]

The 'academic hour' vs the 'astronomical hour' is a fairly common contract trick employed by piggie TEFL administrators in many parts of the world to mislead and shaft teachers. Teacher accepts a rate of say, 20 euro per hour or lesson (it is never stated clearly which), and teaches 10 lessons, each of 45 mins duration. The expectation is that payment will be 200 euro. But then the accountant informs you that the rate refers to 60 mins and not 45 mins, and slices off 25% of your earnings even before tax deductions. Or is that 33%? Heck, I'm a TEFLer! I cannot do maths - cheat me some more!!

The confusion always hinges on the exact definition of lesson, and of hour. Are they the same or not? If not, how exactly do they differ? If this is not totally clear in advance, expect disappointment, no matter where you are in the TEFLsphere...

And by then there's nothing for it but to raise the Red flag!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tItSl_RKc

[spiral78]

[vabeckele]

[Qaaolchoura]

[spiral78]

I once substituted for 10 days for a collegue at a university where we both worked. We were paid for 60-minute hours, at a rate of 1:1 - meaning that they broke it up into 'teaching' and 'prep' (because some courses were paid higher prep than others).

She gave me lesson plans for the 10 days on a single post-it note; her course was intensively book-based and she basically just told me what order to go through it in (this type of course is long-dead there now, thankfully).

Then she expected to be paid all the prep - HALF of the pay for the two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! While she was lounging on some beach somewhere:-)

She lost that fight, by the way.