Job Discussion Forums

[robitusson]

Greetings all, what sort of wages do they pay for teachers with degree and CELTA in Taiwan? What would the minimum be? And what would the average be?

[SurfTaiwan]

600-800 NT per hour

Dude if you want money, easy money go to Korea. The pay is diminshing all over Taiwan. It's true.

[clark.w.griswald]

I can't comment about the job situation in Korea so SurfTaiwan may well be correct that Korea offers good earning potential. I just don't know.

I don't however agree that wages are low in Taiwan. This debate has been going on for ages, and some people very strongly believe that wages are down from before. They haven't however supported these claims with any real evidence.

My view is that wages are definitely higher than they were in the past, but are not increasing at fast rate. I doubt that wages will increase as it seems to me that foreign teachers are a schools greatest single cost in some cases, yet a foreign teacher these days does not automatically equate to a huge increase in income. It used to be that schools who had foreign teachers were very competitive, but now that almost every school who wants a foreign teacher has one, schools have found that they actually need to compete on other levels.

In support of my belief that wages are steady and increasing slighty I refer to my own personal experience and job information. I have been in Taiwan for just over a decade. Newbie teachers are earning more now than they did when I arrived. I can't remember a time when teachers were getting pay cuts.

If you look at historical pay information here, and compare that with current job offerings, then you can see that what is being offered now is about the same as it was last year. If anything, pay now is a bit higher on average.

It seems to me that the proponents of the idea that pay rates are down are actually confusing this issue with the issue of earning power.

According to the dynamics I presented above whereby schools with foreign teachers would win a lions share of the local market, foreign teachers often found that there was an oversupply of work at the schools they worked at. Nowadays, the students are spread more evenly over a greater number of schools, each of which have their own foreign teachers. This means that overall that hours at each school are more sparse.

Fortunately foreign teachers can now work for more than one school and therefore you can get a decent workload and earn decent money, but you will need to work that bit harder. It is certainly not as easy as it used to be to earn the big bucks, but I see that as a good thing as it will hopefully raise the level of the teachers in the industry, and along with it the respect that we are given.

I would think that an average starting wage would be around NTD600 an hour. If you are willing to work then you can easily earn NTD60,000 a month in your first year, and up from there.

Finally, as a result of all of the above, and the fact that there are probably more qualified foreign teachers here now than ever before, schools are becoming more particular about who they are willing to hire. The job market is a lot more competitive, but provided that you meet the minimum legal requirements, and you have a good personality then you should do okay.

[robitusson]

60, 000 a month sounds excellent. How does that compare with the cost of living there? How much is a months rent for a room there for example?

[Taylor]

Dear robitusson,

As always, I agree with virtually everything posted by the esteemed Mr. Griswald.

Regarding rent, Taipei is the most expensive (of course). Rent there could easily be over 10K NT per month, I suppose. If you are willing to live like a college student, then you could likely find a small place for half of that.

Here in Kaohsiung, you can rent a really decent pad for 6K NT. You would certainly want to have a 'local' help you with the bargaining process.

Regardless, you should be able to save a minimum of $1000 US every month. Yes, this means you can bank $12,000 USD after one year. That ain't bad!

Taylor
Kaohsiung (8 years)

[JZer]

clark.w.griswald wrote,

[Chris Smith]

Legally you can have a total of three schools attached to your ARC. This is a relatively new rule from the government.

You'll have to be careful about the contract(s) offered to you by any schools you sign up with. Some will demand that you work for them exclusively, meaning that if you do work for someone else and the school finds out, you may find yourself leaving that particular job. Most schools care about you leaking their system or materials to competitors.

If possible, I'd say it's better to stick with one school if you can. They are more likely to invest in you as a teacher and your teaching hours should be more stable. Of couse it depends on what the school is offering in the first place, and the reality once you start.

[robitusson]

[logician]

[JZer]

If you apply directly once you are in Taiwan, do the schools seem to care whether you have more than one employeer?

Also are you saving $1,000 a month on the base salary of 60,000NT. It seems like that is what the average offer is.


Thirdly if you teach in an illegal kindergarten, do you actually prepare lesson or are they basicly mapepd out for you?

[teacha]

[teacha]

[JZer]

[JZer]

How many hours a work do most of your work? If it is not too personal and you could post for me how many hours you work that would be great.

[teacha]