Job Discussion Forums

koalabear · Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Bialystok, Poland

Hi,

There is something that keeps bugging me. What percentage of a regular salary are schools usually paying for holiday breaks or summer vacations (I do not mean summer camps here). My school paid me 2/3 of my salary for the spring holiday break, but for some reason they changed the contract now and are offering new and old teachers only 1/3 of the salary in the coming school year. I have heard that some schools are paying full salaries in such cases, other - half. Are there any regulations I could quote when discussing that with my school? I suppose not, but it's always good to ask.

Thanks for any help

P.S. I know Koala is not a bear...

Ludwig · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 5:17 am Post subject:

I think it depends very much on your employer, your contract, and your location. When I was on the mainland I only got nine days of paid holiday a year; here in HK I get three whole months fully paid; from 9 to 90 in one fell swoop!

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

Ludwig is right in that it depends on your employer. Mine gives me 100% for both spring and summer vacation, for example. If you've already signed this new contract there isn't really anything you can do about it ... maybe it's something that could be negotiated, if you haven't.

koalabear · Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Bialystok, Poland

Thanks guys. I am now in mainland China, in Ningbo to be exact. The reason I asked was to to get more info before I sign anything. I want to know more so that I and my other colleagues can demand a better treatment from the school i.e we can say: other schools are doing that, why can't you. I should say here that we get 3-4 weeks of paid holidays in Jan/Feb. i am not really sure about summer, but expect the salary conditions to be similar to winter break.

Lee_Odden · Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 172

It also varies between employees within the same private school. During the last May holiday, some employees received full pay and some, especially those who worked overtime, lost their overtime pay because of the holiday (but not everyone, even though everyone has the same contract). Sometimes, it depends on who you are and what the managers think you will tolerate. Welcome to China.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

In one school I got paid the same monthly pay throughout the year, but that was a big exception.
Actually, many schools (I mean public ones that follow the school calendar with its fixed holiday seasons) don't pay you at all during summer holidays. This is, for example, the case now at my university although they did pay my full salary for the first two weeks of my stint when I was not doing any classes (planning muddle following a week of spring festival holidays).
But, I do think you stand to earn at least the absolute minimum which is set at RMB 2200. SOme may be willing to negotiate.

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

We had a row with our school here due to them trying to reduce our pay during the New Year's holiday. Things were straightened out and now it is full salary each month. To prevent this from happening next year, I made sure they included a clause which states I get paid full salary every month regardless if there is a holiday, days off for testing, sporting events, whatever. The only way my pay is reduced is if I instigate it somehow (several days of illness or some sort of leave of absence). I also had them enter the total that would be paid to me by the end of my contract (10 months x monthly salary).