Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nicam]

So, my friend and I both teach in rural Geoje, and she gets an extra $100 rural allowance a month and I do not. My ride is 25 minutes each way and hers is only 10. What's up with that?

Anyone know what the criteria is for this?

[MrRogers]

It depends on what your contract says.

There is a paragraph (in mine it is Article 13, no. 3) which mentions the towns that qualify for a rural allowance. So perhaps she goes to a different village? Or is Geoje the rural town mentioned in the paragraph? I'd say check out your contract paragraph, and perhaps if it pertains to you, someone made an error when you checked in, and they owe you an allowance.

[Big Mac]

I get two rural allowances, for a total of 300,000 Won. It's in my contract though. I'm at a public school, but not with EPIK. I think everyone at a public school in this area gets the same thing, as it is in the standard contract for public schools here.

[cruisemonkey]

The rural allowances depend on your residence address, not where you teach.

If you live in a 'place' with the suffix '-si' you do not get the rural allowance. If you live in a '-gun' or '-myeon', you do.

[Big Mac]

[cruisemonkey]

In which province is Seosan-si?

The -si/-gun, -myeon differentiation was explained to me by the Gyeongnam POE. I wouldn't be surprised if each province made up their own rules as to what constitutes 'rural'.

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

I think each province decides what is rural.

Im in a -si and get the extra 100,000 in Gangwondo.

[mogbert]

I also am in a -si and get the allowance. It depends how "rural" the city is. Which is determined by the province, I suppose.

[Big Mac]

Seosan-si is in Chungcheongnam-do, also known as Chungnam.

[Ramen]

If you have homeplus and/or e-mart in your city, you don't get rural allowance.

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

[thatwhitegirl]

We've got Homeplus AND Emart (just arrived), and we get 200,000 for rural and provincial bonus.
And we're in a -si. In Chungnam.

[jvalmer]

It depends on what province you live in. Some places they'll give you the rural bonus even though you work in a city, others not. I live in Gyeongbuk, and there they give you a bonus if you live in a -gun, even if it has an E-mart.

[nathanrutledge]

I'm in Hwaseong-si, and I WAS getting the rural allowance until last month when my co teacher told me it was a mistake and I had to pay them BACK 500k that I had already been paid. When I asked what the criteria was, I got a few different answers:

1) Our school is in a newly developed area where they are still building everything.
2) I live far enough away that I have to take a bus to school.
3) They just do what the district tells them.

I had a meeting at the district office a few days after this, so I decided to ask the supervisor who told me that she would check into it. After that I heard that I would qualify for the rural allowance if:

1) I had to ride more than 1 bus to get to school.
2) I had not bought a motorcycle which I use to commute to school.

When I pointed out that I DO take two buses to get to school (I COULD walk to the second bus stop, but it takes about 20-25 minutes, about a mile) they told me that because I had bought a motorcycle ON MY OWN and used it to drive to school, that I didn't qualify.

Long story short, they have no set rules for it. I didn't really mind that they weren't going to pay me the allowance anymore. Dongtan is pretty developed as far as I am concerned. What really pissed me off was that they made me pay them BACK the 500k they had paid me in good faith.

[Draz]