Job Discussion Forums

majew · Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 3

Hi, I got an offer from an international school in Casablanca...so far, this is the only offer I got so I am likely to take it. However, I want to know what the school offered is reasonable enough to live decent and save some. They offerd around 1,720 USD monthly (paid in local currency), free shared apartment and utilities (but I want single aprtment that I'll have to pay extra 250USD/month), health insurace, free lunch and free transportation to school.
I am not much of a party kind. I mostly spend time at home watching TV or surfing internet , maybe go out for a nice meal and a movie once a week. Is it possible to save 50%? I will really appreciate any suggestion you might have...Thank you in advance and have a nice day.

Hod · Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home

TwinCentre · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 273 Location: Mokotow

I don't know the current exchange rate...but isn't 1,720 USD monthly less than 12,000 DHMs?? I'd say if your accomodation is free etc, and that figure is Net, it is okay. But it's not great, you are not going to live your typical expat lifestyle on that. You won't save much if you like going out. If that figure is Gross, then that is a different story, I wouldn't accept it myself...

Why do you wanna live in Casa? Have you done your research? If so, then good on you, if not, please read the posts about the city on these forums.

medina · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 64 Location: Morocco

TWC's mention of gross (vs net) salary is very important. Moroccan income tax-- which they're going to take out of your pay monthly (and if not, then they're not operating legally)-- can be as much as 42%!! So on 12,000 that would leave you what? less than 8K net? Then if you have to pay rent out of that, it's definitely not enough to live on in Casablanca (or practically anywhere else in Morocco these days). (BTW, the dollar here is now 7.2 or 7.3 dh)

Hod · Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home

Can I go a tad off topic here? As someone who once paid tax in Morocco, it would be good to know where 42% of my lucre ended up.

Without doing a Wiki, I would go so far to guess that Morocco is in the World top ten when it comes to sponging tax off its workers. Also in that top ten would be countries like the USA, UK, Germany, France, etc etc. And you just know what�s coming next...

Those other countries are developed. They have infrastructure-type things like transport systems, health care (with insurance granted), policemen you could trust in an emergency and all those bombs and stuff can�t come cheap.

Granted, a huge number of Moroccans are hard up and wouldn�t know a tax return from a copy of Headway. But to write off 42% of my money and get diddly squat in return, my accountant doesn�t get it either.

Oasisdweller · Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 30

Check tax rates. The US has one of the lowest in the developed world. It's not socialist unlike much of Europe. Healthcare would be nice tho.
There is so much underground economy in AFrica, much of Asia, Latin America, and the tax rates are somewhat high, but in Morocco for example, the tax rate is extremely reduced on a second job, to about 16%.