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Korean Salaries
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Skyblue



Joined: 02 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:34 pm    Post subject: Korean Salaries Reply with quote

Just curious ... What do our hosts earn at some of their jobs?

Someone recently told me bus drivers earn more than 2 million a month.

I've read here that local teachers at hagwons are poorly paid, but public school teachers do OK.

What do other people, in other industries, tend to earn here?
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eIn07912



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Location: seoul

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember at the hagwon, my coteachers made significantly less. Less than half of what the foreign teachers made and they didn't get things like free rent like we tend to take for granted sometimes.

At the public school (which was actually a private elementary school) the Korean English teachers were paid like hagwon teachers. Maybe just a little more than a million won a month. But the Korean homeroom teachers (the only real teachers I guess) were on a tier system. The ones that had only been there a few years made as much as the waygooks (2.3-28.) Then those that had been there like 5 years or so were banking 5 million. Those lifers than had been there for 10 or 20 years were pulling in like 8 million or more a month.

But all the Korean homeroom teachers, regardless of how long they've been there, got excellent benefits. For one, they all get instant tenure as soon as they sign their contract. It's almost impossible for a principal to fire a Korean teacher. They would really have to f*ck their job, or not show up for a week, or grope some kids just to get suspended with pay. Honestly, I think the instant tenure is a bit too cushy. But hey, not my country. They all also get the 6 week summer vacation and the two months or more off in winter. The foreign teachers at my PS get the full 2 months at winter off, but usually only a week during the summer. We don't have to desk warm, but we teach an in house summer English camp like the hogwons do for a few weeks.

Anyways, as a hagwon teacher, it sucks for Koreans. Long hours, little pay, and crappy benefits. For the Korean teachers that score PS homeroom gigs, it's the good life. If it were possible for waygooks to land homeroom teacher gigs (which it absolutely isn't) I'd seriously consider doing it for the long haul.
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Captain Corea



Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In larger companies, most starting positions are at around 1.8 to 3 million per month. Most of the mid level managers I kow makebetween 5 million to 10 million per month. The executive officers I know make much more.

This is all industry dependant though.
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Wai Mian



Joined: 03 Sep 2010
Location: WE DIDNT

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A friend of mine was working at an ad agency making 3.0 mil a month with housing, but he said he made more than his boss (a mid level manager) b/c he wasn't Korean and his company knew they needed to entice him to put up with the native style crap. Maybe finance/banking is another story.
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T-J



Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul EunpyungGu Yeonsinnae

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

Anyways, as a hagwon teacher, it sucks for Koreans. Long hours, little pay, and crappy benefits.


It is true that most make less, but remember their pool is a lot bigger. There is actually much more of an opportunity for them to move up as they gain experience, and or prove their worth.

Top Korean Hagwon teachers make significantly more than E-2 visa holders.
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redaxe



Joined: 01 Dec 2008

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The salary obviously goes up with age and the prestige and financial performance of the company, but at the chaebol where I worked, almost all the rank-and-file employees had the word "manager" in their titles, and they all made between 3-4 million a month. This is with anywhere from like 5-15 years of experience. The raises that come with their promotions are very small. One of my coworkers got promoted from "manager" to "deputy general manager" (although he was still not managing anyone) and his pay increase was only like 300,000 won a month.

The Vice Presidents made a lot more than that, but the tradeoff was that they were all on one-year contracts and were left high and dry if top management decided not to renew them the following year.
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tophatcat



Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Location: under the hat

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bonuses can range from small to big, really big for some of the salary jobs.
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misher



Joined: 14 Oct 2008

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my students tonight politely asked me about my salary. I guess he assumed that because he has to fork over so much cash to the company that the teachers would be rolling in dough. His jaw hit the floor when I said not much over 2 and a half million won (with the housing thrown into that.) He was also even more shocked when I told my manager only made a 4-5 hundred thousand more than me and she had been with the company for 7 years already. What he said next hit the nail on the head. "Somebody upstairs must be getting insanely rich." I agreed.

My student was an electrical engineer for samseong and has about 5 years work experience. He was still a young guy and according to him, not anything special. He said with his bonuses that he is over 6 million which he and many other Koreans who have a good education and work in companies consider to be still quite mediore to low. In another ten years he'll probably be up around 8 or 9 mill.

This is what I can't stand about many hagwons here. THey offer no incentive for you to work your way up. Even managers make not that much more that it can't really be considered a career. The adjossis up top are trying to squeeze every penny even though they are making millions. My school in vancouver didn't pay that well to start but if you were on contract there was a 10 year pay scale which wasn't all that bad (started at around 3,500CAD and ended at around 5,500 CAD) which gave you an incentive to keep working hard. The company also wanted to retain the goods. Korean hagwons do not do this because the teaching quality really means nothing to them. ESL teachers are replaceable. Good ones that students love are not. A shame that many hagwon owners do not realize this.
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youtuber



Joined: 13 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would say the pay is about average when housing is factored in.

However, most Koreans strongly dislike our presence here.

As such, we are at the bottom of the totem pole.

Also consider, when I first came here in 2005, jobs were easy to get. No HIV test, no medical test and I got paid 2.2 million.

Average wage in 2010 seems to be about.....2.2 million. We are falling behind every year.

Hope y'all have an escape plan!
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madoka



Joined: 27 Mar 2008

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

misher wrote:

My student was an electrical engineer for samseong and has about 5 years work experience. He was still a young guy and according to him, not anything special. He said with his bonuses that he is over 6 million which he and many other Koreans who have a good education and work in companies consider to be still quite mediore to low. In another ten years he'll probably be up around 8 or 9 mill.


Really? 6 million a month for a young guy seems to be a pretty good salary in Korea. I don't know if even EEs in the U.S. would consider that much per month to be "low."

My impression seems to be that "managers" in large companies make about 4-5 million.
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jvalmer



Joined: 06 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

madoka wrote:
Really? 6 million a month for a young guy seems to be a pretty good salary in Korea. I don't know if even EEs in the U.S. would consider that much per month to be "low."

That's on par for an EE with about 5+ years experience in Canada, then you'll have to minus taxes. But EE's were hit hard in 2001 and wages have basically stagnated. Just say that a new grade in 2010 is probably making the same as a new grade in 1999. If they are lucky enough to even find a job.
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machoman



Joined: 11 Jul 2007

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i have two co teachers who didn't pass the teacher certification exam yet they still work as full time teachers here. because they're not a teacher, they get pooped on by the vice principal. and they only get paid 1.8mil. AND they have to work every other saturday. it's crap. they're not happy.
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tatertot



Joined: 21 Oct 2008

PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 1:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jvalmer wrote:
madoka wrote:
Really? 6 million a month for a young guy seems to be a pretty good salary in Korea. I don't know if even EEs in the U.S. would consider that much per month to be "low."

That's on par for an EE with about 5+ years experience in Canada, then you'll have to minus taxes. But EE's were hit hard in 2001 and wages have basically stagnated. Just say that a new grade in 2010 is probably making the same as a new grade in 1999. If they are lucky enough to even find a job.

Wages are probably different in the US and Canada, but I know that Intel was paying $67,000/year for recent BSEE graduates in 2006. Microsoft was paying about the same, and Google was paying a bit more, I think. That seems awfully low to me for someone with 5+ years experience.
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northway



Joined: 05 Jul 2010

PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Korean kindy teachers at my hagwon make between 1.2 and 1.5 a month. On the flip side, they only teach 40 minutes a day.
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InDaGu



Joined: 28 Jun 2010
Location: Cebu City, Philippines

PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

At the hagwon I worked at last year, the K-teachers were making 1.1 (with no housing) a month, and doing a LOT more work than the NETs.
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