Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Otherside]

First off, I'm writing this with specific relation to GEPIK as its the organisation I have experience with and, if I'm not mistaken, the single biggest employer of EFL teachers in Korea.

Upon doing some thinking about whether to make Korea a 1-2 year experience or to invest some serious time here, the financials always come back to haunt me.

Meet Bob (my situation is slightly different, so I won't make it difficult with the complexities) As a level 2 GEPIK teacher (BA+TEFL) his salary is marked as 2.1mill. After 2 years he will be promoted to a level 1 teacher (2.3mill). Each subsequent year of employement at the SAME school will net him an additional 0.1mill, until his salary is capped at 2.5mill.

So, in 4 years he will have reached the salary cap, and some simple math reveals this is in effect an annual increase of 4.3%. Barely beats inflation. To my knowledge, the salaries for certain levels were not adjusted from 2007 to 2008, (were they adjusted before that? If so, when and by how much?).

So conclusions drawn from this are:
1. A teacher, having obtained 4 years experience (most likely improving greatly as a teacher, especially in the korean public school context) and having shown considerable loyalty to his employer will be lucky to maintain the same standard of living that he had when he started out. (With oil and food prices rocketing, it will take some doing to keep inflation under 4.3%!).

2. With the exchange rate dropping, (it's dropped almost 10% against the dollar in the last 6months, and the dollar has been VERY WEAK against other major currencies), he will either struggle to meet initial saving/investment/debt goals, or his standard of living will drop even more?

3. After more than 4 years in the system, he will see his standard of living // saving/investment/debt contributions RAPIDLY decline as he will have reached the salary cap and inflation will soon eat into that.

Will GEPIK (and the other powers that be), ever institute a system where base salaries go up according to inflation (or atleast match it over time), and that long term teachers recieve an inflation-beating raise year after year? If this does not happen, the financials will never make sense? I can't think of another industry where one begins their career knowing that their effective take home pay will decline year after year, and where a 23 year old kid fresh out of Uni with a degree in a completly unrelated discipline earns 80% (starting salary on GEPIK is 2.0Mill) of a person with perhaps 20 years experience in the field, an MA degree in THAT discipline and 5+ years at the same employer. AND he will be matching said old-timer in 4 years.

Those of you who recommend doing overtime, I considered that, but doing overtime is available (often can't be avoided) from the get-go, and working harder is not exactly a "perk", so I left that out of the equation. Privates, are unrelated to the PS system and "illegal" so again, were left out.


Upon doing some brief research, the options in Korea (non F visa's) include Universities and Hagwons and perhaps a few other specialist positions. Hagwons are a total minefield and I don't want to enter a discussion why they would be less than ideal for a long term investment.
Universities, on the other hand, used to be the holy grail of EFL jobs here. What I've gathered is that the UNI contracts are getting increasingly worse and often pay much less than the PS system. The vacation at the top places is amazing (yet many places seem to be reducing this rapidly), yet its illegal to use that bonus time to supplement your income.

Could we keep this discussion on the PS system if possible and not branch off into "My hagwon/Uni does...."

[ttompatz]

GEPIK (and other public school rates) have gone up over time. It wasn't that long ago that wages started at 1.8.

-This is not and has never been a career move for those not on an F-visa.
-It is a growth industry with job security that you won't get in the private sector. Employment rates of 110% - no shortage of jobs globally.
-You will have a decent standard of living, even with small losses due to inflation and over the long run currency fluctuations because your expenses are so low (rent free, airfare paid every year, 6 weeks paid vacation) and for most of us (~75%) we can get a full refund of our (and our employers) pension contributions when we leave.
-Add in the annual "severance" of one month's salary...

Great entry level job,
OK midlife change
Decent for an early retirement option.

.

[TheUrbanMyth]

It's very quite simple. The ESL jobs here are mainly for short-termers..people that do 1-2 years and then go back to their home country. And the salary levels reflect that. If you want more you will have to arrange that yourself. Either legally with overtime or marriage to a local or illegally with privates.

[marlow]

As someone maxed out at 2.5M, I'm seriously considering my options. It's obvious that the public system is in no way willing to respect experience or loyalty beyond four years, so it's time to get the salary upped or for me to give my job less respect. A man's gotta sleep at night.

[Kimchieluver]

I would really like to see cost of living adjustments to our pay. I don't think it is going to happen until a lot of teachers start asking for it or at least mentioning it.

[Scouse Mouse]

You can milk a little extra by getting your own place and asking them to increase the housing allowance and keep your salary as it is. The housing allowance can be increased, despite what they may say, though I would guess there is a limit to that as well.

Once you have exhausted all of that, you can always switch to an afterschool gig. They have no problem paying more money for less hours!

[jellobean]

[Scouse Mouse]

[jellobean]

In that, you are quite right.... I was just throwing out a warning to those without that experience