Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sshemma]

My date of pay should be the 10th, but have been informed that from May it will be the 25th, which would be fine by me if we were going to be payed so from April 10th to May 25th we will obly recieve 4 weeks pay! Obviously this is money that we would get back at the end of our contracts but I still dont like the fact that we wont get paid for a month until 25 days after said month, 10 days was bad enough!

Besides is it even legal to pay this late, Im sure I read somewhere before that Korean law stated that your pay date should be at most 10 days after the end of the month. Also my contract states that I should be paid on the 10th, can they just change it?

[thegadfly]

Choose your battles -- yes, a change of paydate can be annoying, but so long as you are not losing any pay, it is not much more than an annoyance.

The teachers at my school are hired and begin working at all times of the year, and all days of the month.

Previously, your first day in-country was the beginning of your pay month, and ran to the prior day of the following month (e.g. I started Sept. 17th, so the end of my first pay month was Oct. 16th). This practice meant that every teacher had a different pay-date.

In an effort to make record-keeping and communication simpler, the school recently changed the pay-dates to the 25th of each month for everyone. This meant that I got paid on the 17th, and then I got paid for the days from the 18th to the 24th, pro-rated, again on the 25th of that same month.

At the end of my contract, my final pay will be paid on the 17th, so my last "month" will be a week short -- the "extra" week I had received when the pay-dates switched over. I will not be shorted any money -- the dates I received it in the interim have changed, to make it simpler and more predicatable for the school.

For folks that had a pay-date AFTER the 25th, they get their pay "early," and will be receiving their "extra" time at the end of their contracts, where I will be "shorted." I keep using quotes because none of the pay is short or extra -- just changing the schedule of payment disbursements. The total amount remains the same over the course of the contract.

New hires will have their first pay pro-rated, so that they receive the proper amount on the 25th...so if someone starts on the 23rd, they would get paid for the 23rd and 24th, on the 25th....

If your payments move to the 25th in May, you should be receiving a payment on May 10th, for your month from April 11th to May 10th, and then a "short" payment from May 11th to May 24th on the 25th (unless your school does inclusive day calculations). It that is indeed happening, then this is an annoyance, not a problem. If they are NOT pro-rating your payments, so that you get paid for your time, then yes, you have a problem....

I would double check first, to be sure there is a REAL problem before making too many waves....

Incidentally, the schools have quite a bit of time before pay is considered "late" -- two weeks or more, if I remember correctly...though Ttom or someone else with better info will probably chime in and tell you the proper timeframe.

[sshemma]

When I first heard of the date change it was through the grapevine, I went and checked with the manager this morning.

I am a new hire in this school as are three of the pther teachers, one other teacher re-signed, the four of us new teachers havent recieved a paycheck yet as we all started at the start of March.

The situation is that we will be paid for one month for working 1st March until 10th April and then not again until 25th May when again we will recieve another one month payment and then paid monthly on the 25th every consecutive month. What is adds up to is them withholding payment for 25 days everymonth, I dont like it it means we're nearly a month behind with our pay the whole time we're here and they can do whatever they want because even when we get paid they'll still always owe us 25 days payment.

[thegadfly]

Well, with the montly payment schedule that is common in Korea, you ARE a month "behind" on pay, every month. You work a month, and at the end of that month, you get your pay...however, when you look at your work-period (start of the pay period and end of the pay period), you should be getting paid just after that -- if you work 10th to the 9th, and get your pay for that period on the 25th, they are holding it for 16 days, not 25...but if they pro-rate a portion of your pay prior to that to bring you back into line, they are not paying late at all....

If your school is doing exactly what you have said, then they are not paying you for two weeks of work -- which would be quite wrong. However, this seems to me to be such a glaring problem that I would wager that there is a micommunication or misunderstanding, rather than an actual skrewing going on.

I've been through this situation, as I have said, and it caused confusion all around -- sit down with a calendar and the real amounts of your monthly payments, and sort out how much you should be getting on which dates, with someone official from the school. Even without speaking Korean/English, numbers and a calendar should be universal enough to get satisfactory answers....

Good luck.

[OculisOrbis]

Labor states that all payments must be made within 14 days.

If you are paid monthly, the 14 day clock start as soon as you have hit 30 days of work. If you havent received one full months pay after 44 days of work, you employer is in violation of the labor laws.

[lifeinkorea]

I would never wait past the 10th without some explanation. Usually, I have been paid on the 5th or before. At my last school, there was no security deposit, so we had a roll-over agreement. I only got paid a portion of my salary, and the remainder was used as a security deposit until next pay date.

Do some math:

1) What is your salary? I'll use 2,000,000
2) What is the security deposit, if any? I'll use 600,000
3) How about transportation and bills? I'll use 250,000 as an estimate

Even though you are responsible for bills and maybe transportation, if you don't get paid, how are you going to pay the bills?

I would write up a 30 day notice and give them a choice.

A) Accept this 30 day notice on the 5th or 6th month at the school.
B) Pay before the 10th.
C) No option C

Get ready to pack up and leave. They owe 5,700,000 based on the numbers above before they pay you.

What if they are late on the 25th? Then 6,000,000 easily. Don't accept this.

[shifty]

Yes I agree with lifeinkorea, this is a battle worth fighting.

It will be devastating to your morale putting up with the day to day b.s. in full knowledge that you haven't been paid. In Korea, pay is a huge part of the equation. Take that away and there's not much left to chew on.

It's a ticklish situation since you don't want to be confronting them right now, with nothing banked. In essence they've got you in a corner and done their dastardly deed when you're most vulnerable.

They won't be getting runners any time soon with this little ploy in place.

However, they don't realise that an unhappy teacher is not a good teacher. Koreans are not at their best with this type of stuff.

If I were you I'd first get the 10th April pay safely tucked away before a concerted effort to do anything. Even the 10th is too much behindhand and barely acceptable.

The one bright light is that one teacher re-signed. What is his/her opinion? This teacher may well be on a different contract so don't be overly candid when first broaching the subject. Treat with kid gloves and beat about the bush in gingerly fashion until you have some trust.

Gawd, that's pure hell, I don't envy you.

[Ramen]

don't accept change of payday. all e-2ers are salaried employee. you should be paid same amount each month other than your overtime. anyway, your regular salary should be paid up to and on time and any other misc. pay such as overtime, travel pay, etc. should be paid separately if it requires collection of data, review, and accurate calculation.

[sshemma]

Thanks all.

I don't actually think they're trying to screw me out of any money, just give themselves extra protection from runners, but no dice as far as I'm concerned, 10 days is enough!

Anyway the manager has to talk to the real boss about about it, so we shall see...

[cyui]

Are you sure it's not being done in bi-monthly lump sums that are divided into sectional periods'?For example ( ie pro-rated "bonus" the first month) and then 12^3 payperiods)..so 24,000 would be equal to 8,000 every 4 months ( technially, I think it is supposed to be 3, but most people probably expect at least one monthly pay period in the beginning and not in the last.

2,000^ 8,000 ^8,000 ^6,000= 24,000

This is equvilant to the US Public Schools' 9 month pay calender. It's a good displinary system for curving out bad spending habits, but very very bad if you can't budget worth a damn.

[cyui]

I am sorry but most companies need to adopt this pay system..

I mean every 2 weeks? That is just spoiled and inefficent pratice,

[Young FRANKenstein]

[lawyertood]

A change in pay date can also be an indication that the institute has cash flow problems. I went through this in 1997-98 during the currency crisis. Changing the date did not necessarily guarantee getting paid on time back then.

I would agree with others that 25 days is a bit unreasonable and would not go along with it.

[cyui]

The first bonus goes non-taxed right? ( ie, settlement fee + salery)..
and then residency taxes( 22%) on the rest, right?

Recalcualte the total 24,000 as:

2,300 ^ 6,240 ( *2) + 4,680= 14,860 ( this isn't counting extra supplements)

Gosh, no wonder Koreans have such issues with foreigners' teaching over there. That is bad, so illegal and really irresponsible.

[jacksthirty]

Hang on, I think the OP is more concerned that he might not get paid for the time in which pay day changes; 25 days. I think it's one of those last in translation issues myself. Sit down with the boss, and make sure that you will get paid for that time.