Job Discussion Forums

[william wallace]

It's hard to get a read on how bad it's getting, as this ESL/EFL/ELT (pick your flavour) tend not to have people in this field for more than a couple of years. China was the small and exotic market when I first came here, and some thought the big salaries would come when the market matured....14 years later it's saturated,huge, but the salaries are diving .And you oldbies know how few statistics there are for this field.

General ELT jobs in Beijing :

1993--800-1200 RMB
1995-1800-2200 RMB
1997-8- as high as 6,000 RMB
2000- 6,000- 15,000 RMB
2002-4 - 8,000-12,000 RMB
2007- 4,000-12,000(rare)RMB
I believe I remember looking at Japan in 1992 for about 225,000-250,000 Yen,that's what it's still stuck at.
I was getting 12 pound per hour in Scotland in 1993.
My TEFL teacher (1982-1988) had told us (1991) that the M-E was paying about 40,000 USD per year (tax free) with quite an impressive package.
The fluctuating currencies make for some confusion.

[naturegirl321]

[Justin Trullinger]

Have risen, but are now coming back down, it appears to me.

Here in Ecuador, entry level salaries are holding more or less steady, but prices are rising. I feel like part of the reason the market is getting weaker for entry level teachers is that demand is (slowly, still plenty of work) dropping. Every year there seem to be more serious long term professionals, and backpackers find it harder to get work...


Best,

Justin

[william wallace]

If you look closer at the figures...2007 "4,000" at the low end, that goes back to 1997.Prices have soared since then, rents have doubled or tripled,so the 4,000 in 97 and the present 4,000...and you'll see the top end of 15,000 has since gone.
PS. Not to mention that taxi fares used to be paid, and airfare was paid in full, as was medical; often now, airfare and medical coverage is a shrinking percentage.

[william wallace]

Not in China/Korea/Thailand/Vietnam/Taiwan. Out of about 150-200 FT's I've known over the years here about 5-10 are still here.

[denise]

Well, my salary just went up! Life is comfortable here... a lot more so than in the US, where I'd be living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay my debts, save, and live a comfortable life.

d

[naturegirl321]

[John Hall]

[saint57]

I'm getting a big 24% raise in July. It's not becaue I'm special. The school just adjusted the payscale.

Teaching conversational English is a lot like working at McDonald's. There is no real skill involved. Yes, it may take a week or two to learn the ropes, but basically anyone can do it. Even if you've worked at McDonald's for ten years, you're only as valuable to them as the cost to replace you.

You'll never see McDonald's give a pay raise to people unless they're forced by the law to do so.

If you're competing with backpackers for jobs, you'd better take some time and decide the best way to improve your qualifications.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

In the UAE, the salaries keep going up ... admittedly at times about as quickly as the Himalayas rising ... and even then at some places more than others ... but these days quite the norm for teachers at the more favoured spots is from $40,000 (including gratuity) to over $50,000 ... with the package coming decent accom (palatial for TEFL), flights and schooling for family, & health insurance ...

Having said that, many believe the schooling allowances may soon not be enough to cover the rising costs ... and many others that are given an accom. allowance rather than a place itself are finding that the rental costs in the bigger cities are spiralling out of control and they are either getting a lot less for their money or are having to chip in themselves ... a disaster if you want to keep up with the Jumeirah Joneses ..

But the biggest problem problem by far is that the Dirham is tied to the dollar ... so many non-US Americans have taken a battering over the past 6 years ... watching their salary melt away ...

[rusmeister]

Just noting that the OP seems to be aimed at oldbies (a little definition there?) and it looks like you're talking strategically (10 or more years?).

In Russia salaries haven't changed much over that period. What has changed is the massive influx of short-term 'teachers' all willing to work for minimum wages at McSchools has dragged the actual pay in the big cities down a bit.

The real change here has been cost of living. It has multiplied ten-fold (for expats a figure of 5 is more accurate) over the last 10 years, (over the last 3 it has nearly tripled - doubled for expats). So if you could spend $400/month on food and rent and even the little stuff then, you need at least $2,000 to maintain that minimum lifestyle. (less in the remoter places). If you want to save money you need to make significantly more.

[sidjameson]

I left uni in 1992. My plans to travel to Asia and see if I could pick up work were seen as foolhardy and exotic by all.
These days graduating and going off to do a year or two of TEFL is almost a rites of passage thing. Simple supply and demand accounts for the drop in wages. Give it another ten years and people will be working for free.

nine years ago all my work paid at least 20 to 25 pounds an hour. Now it's a bit of a challenge for new teachers here (Japan) to earn 10. Prices must have gone up by at least 30% back home too. (though not in Japan)

[globalnomad2]

Japan is an egregious example of salary deflation in the university sector at least. From 1990 to 1992 I earned 7 million yen, or around $54,000, at a Japanese college. (The exchange rate was volatile then, but I think $54K was a reasonable average, and besides, you're paid in yen, not dollars.) Now universities seem to offer 5 million to start if you're lucky. That's about $41,600 at current exhange rates.

[sidjameson]

WOW, 7 million yen in 1992!!!!!!!! You must have felt like the lord of the mannor when you went on holiday. Japanese prices may have gotten cheaper in the last 15 years, but that $54000 in dollars would have bought you a lot more than my "measly" 8 million yen buys me today.

I've always had a nagging suspicion that I entered TEFL 10 years too late.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Language schools in Istanbul in '96 were offering slightly less than most do now ... but back then a shared apartment was thrown in, as were return flights and legal working status ...

Luckily one or two language schools independent of the owners of the big chain, English Time, have taken steps to increase the hourly rates, and deal with the paperwork for legal employment ... bringing them about in line with working conditions over 10 years ago !