Korean Job Discussion Forums

[artyda1manparty]

My school wants to pro-rate my first month's pay..since I arrived towards the end of the month. I don't have a problem with this, but they are trying to pro-rate it based on 30 days (including weekends) which means that they will pay me 4/30th s of my pay rather than 4/23rd s (based on actual teaching days). Is there anything in the Law to which I can dispute this? This prorate was never mentioned in the contract.

[antoniothegreat]

why are they pro-rating it? you are not quitting, you should get a month's salary.

[BreakfastInBed]

Whether they do 4/30 or 4/23, get a receipt that explicitly says what the remainder of the salary to be paid at the end of your contract is, and make sure it adds up. 12 months is a long time to wait and things get easily 'confused.'

The more I think about this, the more it gets under my skin because it's so petty. At first glance I thought, what's the big deal, you'll get it all in the end. But what if you don't make it to the end? True, you haven't lost much, but you shouldn't lose anything, you should be paid correctly for work you have performed. 4/23. You've worked 17% of your contracted hours, you should be paid 17% of your wage, not 13%. Right is right and fair is fair and this is neither.

[artyda1manparty]

I completely agree. Is there anything in any of the actual legal documents about this?

[shcforward]

One of my co-workers from Canada (only one currently paying Korean taxes) was just informed today that she'd be paying more in taxes.

They told her to expect that she would pay about 30% more, but they didn't clearly state exactly how much they expected to be.

Yeah. More hear-say.

[thegadfly]

Well, are they going to pay you 26/30 pro-rate at the end, with 11 full monthly paychecks in between? If so, then their method of pro-rating would be fine...if you came mid-month and are leaving mid-month at the end of the contract, I would suggest finding out the pro-rated pay for your last month as well. If the math adds up to what you ought to get, just smile and say you were "confused," and thank them for "explaining" it to you (saves face for them, why raise a stink if you are getting your money). If the math does not add up, continue to say that you are "confused," show them your math (with their error) and give them a day to think about it -- ("I'm sorry -- I am busy today -- could you please show me the math tomorrow when we both have a little more time?"). Again, this is giving them an out, and time to figure out how to save face.

Assuming that the math was in error, I would expect that they will come back the next day and tell you that "the accountant(s) made a mistake."

You want your money, but you also want to work with these people in a friendly (or at least civil...or at least NOT adversarial) environment for the next 11.8 months....

Even a cornered rat will fight -- always give anyone you confront an "out." No one wants to be the bad guy, even the bad guy, so try to arrange things so that they are solved without blame needing to be placed.

[BreakfastInBed]