Job Discussion Forums

bejarano · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 67 Location: South Korea

I looked at job vacancies in Northern Spain (my next stop after my one year soujourn in Korea!) and a lot of schools are offering under under a 1000 Euros a month net!

Is this a typical salary for teachers outside of Madrid?

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 7:59 pm Post subject:

Sadly it seems so. I don't ever recall seeing anything more than 1050 Euros offered. Cost of living has considerably increased in Spain in the last few years but teacher's wages don't seem to have kept pace. I know in Valencia for example, rents have increased by over 50% in the last three years but teachers wages have only gone up by about 10-20% in the same period.

bejarano · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 67 Location: South Korea

Jonni, the cost of living in Spain is just now taking the piss since the launch of the Euro. Somewhere like Cataluyna is just more or less the same cost of living as the UK, it can't carry on the way it is going because the wages of the average Spaniard (as well as the TEFL teacher) hasn't caught up either.

There is going to be a bust soon - I can't see it going any other way!

Moore · Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 730 Location: Madrid

"There is going to be a bust soon - I can't see it going any other way!"

...I thought more or less that way when I arrived in Madrid 4 years ago and it hasn't happened yet and is showing no signs of doing so. Teaching in Spain is essentially quality of life thing more than a money thing. It's for year off-ers, early retirers, language learners or people with other sources of income. Long term survival here off purely TEFL is very harsh and involves a certain adaptation of financial expectations.

The only way to get around this is to get alternative sources of income to get you over the Christmas/summer/public holiday/your-unpaid-holidays bumps. Get into private classes, translation, start your own business etc.

Making half decent money off TEFL (i.e. having a kid/buying a flat sort of money) here in the long term is hard: it can be done, but if you're pinning your hopes on some sort of bust, then don't hold your breath!

QatarChic · Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 445 Location: Qatar

forest1979 · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: SE Asia

The true crime in TEFL is the wages given per hour to part-time teachers. I've noticed some even want people with cars despite the paltry money offered as a 'wage'.