Job Discussion Forums

CNexpatesl · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 194

So it seems the average salary for a foreign teacher in Shenzhen is around 12-13k RMB per month.

Shenzhen has near the same, if not the same cost of living as Shanghai these days, yet its average salary is so poor and pathetic. Laughing

What is the reason behind this?

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

12-13K isn't enough to survive in Shenzhen? Anyways, where are you getting your figures from?

RiverMystic · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 1986

So the average wage for teachers in SH is higher? Anyway, Shenzhen is one of the more attractive places to live in China these days, so I'm sure there are plenty of foreign workers willing to teach English. This may drive down wages.

CNexpatesl · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 194

As far as my data, I just got it from browsing on echinacities and from having some acquaintances that work there.

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

If you are dissatisfied with salaries in Shenzhen, why not move to HK?

3701 W.119th · Joined: 26 Feb 2014 Posts: 386 Location: Central China

If you moan about living on that kind of money, anywhere in China, then this isn't the country for you. It's all relative. Do you know what native Chinese teachers make?

Honestly, I despair for a lot of the 'teachers' over here. They seem to want the moon on a stick.

buravirgil · Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 11:38 am Post subject:

3701 W.119th · Joined: 26 Feb 2014 Posts: 386 Location: Central China

Ha! Odd British idiom, I can't even define it really. Wanting something more than you're due? Ridiculous expectations?

I just think of it when people here start moaning about salaries. Especially when they make more than some Chinese doctors, and the only 'skill' that most of them have is that they speak English. It's shameful.

buravirgil · Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 1:21 pm Post subject:

Oh...I'd argue it's appropriately British. I went through a Robert Graves phase (non-fiction) a year or two after a course in historical linguistics and had bouts of Anglophilia with a mother country versus a fatherland.

Timer · Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 173 Location: China

buravirgil · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:10 pm Post subject:

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

SZ and Qingdao are the only two areas I've heard of where salaries are kept low because of the perceived attractiveness of the locale.
Second point is to think package. Quoting a bald salary figure without reference to other benefits is nonsensical. The biggie will always be accommodation.
Local salaries are a vital part of the equation as they are related to local COL.
There's an oddly colonialist tinge to some of comments on FT v local salaries.

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

I think that in most cases, the difference in salary between FT and local teachers is justified. Experienced FTs bring in skills which are lacking and needed in the local area. They have to give up the comforts of home, travel half-way around the world, be away from family and friends etc etc. So I think it's right that they should be compensated appropriately.

buravirgil · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:38 am Post subject:

Appropriately is, as they used to say, the $64,000 question.
If you're a "believer" in markets, the invisible hand delivers appropriate salaries...varyingly.
But education isn't only a commercial enterprise and government policies constrain said markets.

Whenever expats start naming off their "sacrifices", dissension naturally results from differences of motivation.
And bear in mind the advertisements for our trade-- See the World, etc.

My favorite (sincerely speaking) is to posit a salary abroad must be equal to, or greater than, my home country to be enticing.
However this tends only to hold true in professions requiring more education than ESL.