Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

Several posters on the Saudi forum have maintained that non-Muslim and/or western expats should be paid more solely due to personal lifestyle sacrifices they have to make in order to live/work in conservative Saudi Arabia. In other words, employers should boost the salaries of highly-qualified expats simply because they're giving up so-called freedoms or things (e.g., alcohol, pork, male-female dating/socializing, women wearing whatever they want, women driving, movie theatres, free expression, and so on). Besides, Saudi Arabia is a wealthy country, so some contend that employers definitely can afford to pay expats more for living in such a difficult culture.

What about other countries? For instance, heavily-populated India and China also top the list with the world's most polluted cities. Do employers in these countries offer expat job seekers more money because they'll have to breathe nasty, harmful air? Should they? Ditto for Japan, which has a high number of earthquakes as well as other Asian countries that have experienced more than their share of horrific natural disasters. And it gets pretty darn frosty in parts of Russia, Mongolia, and Central Asia, which can make life challenging for some expats who like things toasty. Is there such a thing as climate compensation?

So what's your take on getting higher pay due to certain perceived or actual hardships (exclusive of war)? Is this a fair expectation? That is, is this about personal choices/free will or about a sense of entitlement?

[suphanburi]

[suphanburi]

remove double post

[Knedliki]

I've found the hardest part of this job has often been the other foreigners, so how about a colleague allowance?

You get extra dollars depending how dysfunctional your co-workers are.

[Deats]

EFL teachers in the Gulf get paid more - that is the equivalent to hardship allowance. I doubt many people would go there if they were paid $1000 a month.

Places that are very desirable to live in often pay the lowest salaries relative to cost of living. Supply and demand dictates the salary. So, once again working somewhere that is not so desirable often pays more (especially compared with CoL and local salaries)

Jobs in Spain, France, Germany, UK etc usually pay less than jobs in China. So surely this is the equivalent of hardship allowance?

Many EFL teachers go abroad to save money (+ adventure, language, food or what not) so they are getting a better deal than they would at home. They are being paid more than they are usually worth, so I would class this as the equivalent of H.A.

[Sashadroogie]

Come to Russia! There is no hardship for EFLers! It is officially prohibited. And any minor discomfort brought on by the climate can easily be offset by the quality of spirit, spirits, and bedwarmers.

[spiral78]

[Deats]

I understand it is market driven. The market drives wages, therefore people are paid more to live in less de