Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Justin Richard]

Job details: guaranteed 2.5 million a month regardless of working hours. Fixed teaching hours are from 1400-1820, Monday to Friday.

The School will pay 100% of the income taxes.

No housing no airfare, School pays 100% of National Pension, (both my share and school's share) which will be 2.7 million a year paid at the end of the contract, 2.5 million severance pay is also included. National Pension can be paid monthly or at the end of the contract.

The school has offered to enroll me in the National Health Insurance plan however I already have health insurance so there will pay 75,000 a month in lieu of providing health insurance.

I am the only foreign teacher as the school. The owner wants me to teach a housewives/mothers class from 1300-1400 before my classes start and will pay 50,000 an hour for this.

No housing or airfare is provided.

[schwa]

If you dont have several thousand dollars in hand to put down on a place to live, your rent is going to make that 2.5 look pretty measly.

Those are really convoluted conditions. The hours are nice but I have to wonder why they arent just following more usual procedures.

[Justin Richard]

I told the school that my experience with the National Pension plan and income taxes with my previous schools was never fair so they offered to pay the National Pension to me directly since I would be getting it eventually anyway.

The income taxes will also be paid to the National Tax Service office. I actually thought it would be simple that way.

I have excellent health insurance already so they offered to pay me 75,000 a month which thye said was their share.

I found an apartment. The rent is 400,000 a month with a 20 million won deposit. A one year lease.

[littlelisa]

Do you have your own visa? If they sponsor you for E2, they have to do national health insurance. Are they actually enrolling you in pension, or just giving you the equivalent money? Sounds like the latter, which is fishy. Again, on an E2, it's a legal requirement.

But in any case, 2.5 with no housing is not great. I guess it's to make up for the reduced hours. Your rent is going to eat into that money big time!

[jrwhite82]

Agreed.

The rent can be really high depending where you are going to be. Where is this position? If you have around $5000-$10,000 you will be able to put a nice deposit down on a studio (which will be returned to you). This will help your rent payments be lower. This offer really isn't any better than opting for a housing allowance from any other school. (except for the awesome hours) Plus they aren't providing airfare.

Not only that but where are you going to stay when you first get here? You don't want to be forced to take the first apartment offer that you get just for the sake of having a place.

The teaching hours are stated (which are great), but what about work hours. Do you have to be there earlier or later for planning and other duties?

Double check the info about the pension AND the severance. Make sure they are giving you both, not just using two different words for the same things.

I'd be a little leery of them paying all the taxes. Who is to say they are actually paying them?

I'm not sure if you've checked but make sure to learn all the ins and outs of using your existing insurance plan while abroad.

It might be a decent deal for you, but something seems fishy because this is definitely not the normal way of doing things.

[jrwhite82]

[Justin Richard]

To Littlelisa,

Yes, the school will pay the National Pension directly to me, either monthly or at the end of the contract. It totals 225,000 a month or 2.7 million a year.

[lowpo]

[Hotpants]

Insist on being able to directly contact a previous teacher from that school and get the lowdown from them. Particularly with all the hoops to jump through with the visa regs, I certainly wouldn't want to risk signing up to an unknown school. If they make an excuse about giving you a previous teacher's contact info, avoid.

But yeah, something sounds suspect about payment, and no housing makes it a very average deal, since you'll likely pay at least 500,000 a month for a place.

[liveinkorea316]

Deal looks average. You might come away with just over 2million per month. As long as the working conditions are ok you should be sweet. The hours are definately friendly.

[Justin Richard]

The school is actually a math school and the owner wants to offer English classes. She turned on of the classrooms into a place solely for the English classes. There is a computer at the teachers desk and each student has a keyboard under their desk top that is connected with the teacher's. Their is an overhead projector that can shown the computer on the board sop the whole class can see.

They are only 12 desks with seats so that seems to be the maximum class size, 12. I would have 3 classes with a 15 minute break in between. I can leave at 1820.

The school has never employed a native Western teacher before. I am the first. It is a relatively small school with only 6 classrooms but more than 200 students. Not all of the math students take the English classes. There is one Korean/English teacher who teaches grammar only. In fact he can speak well enough to answer any of my questions.

[Justin Richard]

I have returned to Korea from Taiwan. I lived in Taiwan for eight years. I am used to paying my own rent and having no airfare.

The rent is 400,000 and the deposit 20 million because I have not lived in Korea for so long. Apparently the deposit could have been only 10 million of I had an employment record and record of paying income taxes.

The 400,000 won montly rent is comparable to Taiwan but slightly less.

I thought this was a good deal witht eh national pension and taxes but I guess I wrong.

Many of the other schools I applied to offered working hours ranging from 1000 to 1900 or some comibination of morning and afternoon classes. I found a company position teaching from 1900-2100 Monday to Friday and this was the only school that offered the possibilty of finishing before 1900. I need about 15-20 minutes to drive to the company.

[Justin Richard]

To: JRWHITE 82

Yes, I understand about the pension and severance. It is very clearly stated in both English and Korean that I will receive both. I wanted to be clear about that from the beginning.

2.7 miilion for the pension and 2.5 million for the severance.

Regarding the income taxes, I have an account at the National Tax Service office. The owner they would pay my taxes.

Regarding the health insurance, they offered to pay 75,000 a month. My private health insurance is with a Korean insurance company and through my wife's employer. I have coverage from three companies and the national health plan in Korea which is why I do not need it.

All the schools I applied to said that I would have to pay into the national health plan even though I did not need. I am covered under my wives policy.

[schwa]

The tradeoffs sound about even. Sounds like you know what you're doing. To a newbie off the boat I'd have said forget it but this might work out nice for you. One caveat -- school hasnt employed foreigners before, so things could go suddenly south. Best luck.

[Justin Richard]

To Schwa,

Korea has changed since I was here last but the salary seems to be less.

I actually had difficultly finding a job here. I returned to Korea in March. I wanted to finish before 1900 and all the schools had difficuly hours in my view.

I have only met a few other teachers here and most say they get 2.1 million. One said he got 2.3 but the net income is less than 2 million. Most of the working hours seem to be 7 or 8 hours a day which is alot in my view.

I thought is was a good deal but maybe it's just average. It is in a small town though not far from Chonju. It looks like a posotion I could be able to have for a few years.

But I did have trouble finding a school that would hire me. Many schools actually did not want to pay the national pension. The problems I have expereince is that schools only wanted to pay a 300,000 hosuing allowance, with severance and health insurance (that is of no benefit). Schools did not want to oay for airfare or pension.

I do not need health insurance and I am regristered with the Minsitry of Education to teach English. I submiited my degrees, ARC and criminal record statement and can legally teach.