Korean Job Discussion Forums

[warren pease]

This can't be accurate, can it? It basically says, among other things, that Korean teachers make 221% of their country's GDP per capita. This is in comparison to U.S. teacher's making only 96%.

I know how much my co-teacher makes. If that is 221% of the GDP per C this country must be much poorer than I thought.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Am I reading it incorrectly?

http://www.icanhasinternets.com/2010/12/teaching-america/

[jvalmer]

I believe it, SK's per capita GDP is roughly $20,000 USD. I'd say the average would be around 45 million won which would be around $42,000 USD. The average age of most teachers is most likely around 40-something. However, if your CT is young then he/she will be making more around the 25 million to 35 million won range.

[nathanrutledge]

That's for a teacher who has 15 years of experience teaching elementary school with the MINIMUM qualifications. Considering that Korea's average income is $20,000 a year, 221% is 44k and change.

Most teachers in the US (at least the ones I had and the ones I know personally) continue their education, training, so obviously the ones who do the minimum are going to be paid the least. Also, there is a wide discrepancy between where in the US a person teaches and what they make, whereas Korea has a much stronger national system. So, while averages take into account the wide discrepancy from state to state, the national system here makes it more expensive - when one teacher goes up, they all go up, whereas in the US, what happens in the different states doesn't spill over to the others as easily.

Long story short, yeah, this doesn't surprise me. As I know many teachers who have been teaching for many years, I can tell you they make some decent money, BUT they did more training to get there.

[warren pease]

Thanks for the quick and clear explanations. God bless Dave's ESL.

[warren pease]

To clarify my surprise, I work in a hagwon, not a public school. Apparently, public school teachers make A LOT more than hagwon teachers. While I can understand that the public school job requires more education, justifying their greater salaries, it seems strange that public schools pay foreign teachers SO much less than do hagwons.

I honestly could not imagine working for public school wages 2.1ish. And I certainly could in no way ever imagine working for Korean teacher's hagwon salaries 1.5ish.

[Stalin84]

It's crazy that the average salary is around $20k. I guess it's hard to notice because people live with their parents. If it wasn't for living with parents then there would be a lot more ghettos around.

[jvalmer]

[mattdsoares]

Korean PPP per capita is $27,000

Nominal is $20,000 according to the newest IMF numbers

That's roughly the same as Portugal, Czech Rep.

Is Korea filthy rich? NO. Are they poor? Far from it.

[Juregen]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[cedarseoul]

Per capita GDP is not the same thing as average household income.

Per capita GDP is the simplest of equations: it's the nation's GDP for one year divided equally among all citizens. An interesting statistic (esp. when you look at PPP), but not particularly helpful when evaluating the financial viability of individual families.

According to this--http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/08/123_28697.html--the average household income for Seoulites in 2008 was around 47 million won. I'd imagine that number is comparable or slightly lower today.

[jvalmer]

[shapeshifter]

[quote="nathanrutledge"]. Also, there is a wide discrepancy between where in the US a person teaches and what they make, [quote]


Can I just point out that this doesn't make a lick of sense? I guess you know what you wanted to say but that can't have been it. Why not limit yourself to vocabularly you're comfortable with instead of arbitrarily throwing around words that have nothing whatsoever to do with your intended meaning? So many people do this. It's unfortunate.

[minos]

[TheUrbanMyth]