Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EmmaHewitt]

With a monthly salary of 1.8-2.1 million won would this be low/medium/high? thanks in advanced!

[ttompatz]

[fustiancorduroy]

So in what income class would a teacher with a salary of 4.0 to 5.0 million won a month be considered?

[jrwhite82]

In Korea, that would probably get you on the lower upper middle class.

[Paddycakes]

First, as foreigners here, you're not on the Korean social scale.

You could make a million USD a year or 10,000 USD a year here, you're still just an outsider, the hired-help, a visiting guest.

But for sh*ts and giggles, I'd say 4 to 10 Million per month is middle class.

2 to 4 Million a month is lower middle.

10 to 20 Million a month is upper middle.


As for ESL teachers claiming to be on a "salary" of 4 to 5 million per month, I'd like to know how they make that directly from "salary" alone.

If you're doing a ton of privates and extra work on the side, sure, it's possible.

But why why would a hogwan or uni pay you a salary like that when they can get anyone off the street to do the same job for 2.1?

[jrwhite82]

Some of the higher end test prep academies in Seoul will pay that amount.

Otherwise you'd have to be doing privates or extra part time gigs to clear that on a regular basis.

[jvalmer]

[jrwhite82]

[jvalmer]

[jrwhite82]

[AsiaESLbound]

It's social class hierarchy with garlic peeling adjumma at the bottom and chaebel CEO at the top. A teacher is very lower middle class, but can become very upper middle class when on F-2 visa by marrying a Korean or having the money to engage in FDI on a business visa as to just start a 1 room high school student test prep hagwon.

[Paddycakes]

To be considered 'rich', you generally need to be worth several million *not* including your primary residence.

Social class is one of those gray things that takes into consideration education, your job, income and social mannerisms to a degree.

But as mentioned, foreigners exist outside the social hierarchy generally.

So the whole idea of foreigners having a meaningful social position in Korea is meaningless.

If a foreigner in Korea wants to define their social class, they should ask themselves what their social class was back in their home country.... which for the majority of ESL'ers I guess means 'lumpen-proletariat'...

[Unposter]

I think there is a lot of good information here so far and I agree with much that Paddycakes has said.

2 million won a month is lower middle class (from an income point of view).

4-5 million makes you middle-middle class.

I believe I've seen something like the average salary in Korea is about 3.5 million a month.

I believe you need to make about 7 million a month to be in the top 25%.

From informal discussions, I think a successful small business should net you at least 10 million a month.

And, yes, there are an awful lot of millionaires in this country and according to one newspaper article I've read, there are a couple of billionaires as well.

Location also matters a lot as well. It is definitely more expensive to live in Seoul. And, the social class of a Seoul address is significantly different than the social class of anyone residing any place else. And, of course, if you have a Gangnam, Mokdong or Bundang (not Seoul admittedly) will also raise your social class as well.

[edwardcatflap]

The OP wanted to know what income class teachers would be classified under not what social class. As any Brit knows these are two completely different things. The latter can be determined by things like the simple speech test.

toilet - working class, loo - middle class, lavatory - upper class
lounge - working class, living room - middle class, sitting room - upper class.
Tea (evening meal) working class, dinner (evening meal) middle class, supper (evening meal) upper class.

and so on..

I take it Paddycakes is joking when he talks about ESLers being lumpenproletariat as I'd have thought having a degree would automatically put you into the at least lower middle class group. It certainly would in the UK.

[jvalmer]