Job Discussion Forums

[ElleB]

I know that here in Japan most employers reimburse their English teachers' transportation expenses to and from work. I've been here two years now and I've assumed that this reimbursement was always separate from salary. Is this true? Is there a law saying that employers have to cover their employees' transportation? I don't really understand why this is so common and under what circumstances a school wouldn't cover a teacher's transportation costs - but I've heard cases in which some schools didn't.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[sethness]

Meh-- some schools cover it; some don't. There's no hard and fast rule, though I'd say offhand that from personal experience, non-school workplaces might cover your commute costs (separate from salary-- maybe a separate envelope,or maybe just listed separately on your paycheck).
In my experience, schools do NOT cover your transportation costs to go to your primary work location, but WILL cover your fares (NOT your time/wage-per-hour) while going to other class locations. So, if your classes are generally at office A, and you have to go to office/high-school/corporate client's building B twice a week to teach, then you get reimbursed for A-to-B or home-to-B, but not home-to-A.

The part that really sux is that many schools will not, as mentioned earlier, consider the commuting-time to be part of your work-time-- so, in a truly crappy schedule, you might spend 10 hours a week shuttling between class locations-- and get told that this is "free time, not work time, not office hours!" Grrrr.

Try to get a schedule where you have solid blocks of classes back-to-back, all in one location-- life's too short to spend your "free time" coughing up smog in the back of a subway.

[Glenski]

Just to reiterate...

There is no law that forces employers to pay you transportation fees.

Many (most?) employers in this business seem to do so.

How they do it is up to them, and it is separate from salary (wages earned for teaching).

What you earn (and how it is calculated) must be in your contract. That IS a law.