Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Blanca]

For a multitude of reasons, I thought it prudent to ask my boss about payslips.

Thus far, I've been paid once, it would appear to be in full (perhaps about 70-100k less than I expected but more or less ok). When I got paid I asked for a breakdown of pay/tax/pension etc, expecting a receipt of these payments (a payslip, if you will). My boss proceeded to write some values on a piece of paper - not exactly what I had in mind but I left it.

Today I asked him for a proper payslip, saying a woman who I know from home who works at the tax office said I should collect an official, legal receipt of payment in case I need proof of earnings when I get home (which may be fairly soon, see my other thread). My boss's English is not very good, and I think something was lost in translation, so I told a Korean teacher what I wanted to say and the boss promised to speak to her after class. I didn't get a chance to speak to him before I came home, so I'm chasing it up tomorrow.

My question is, are payslips, ie legal proof of payment of wages, tax and pensions, the done thing over here? Is it more of a cash-in-hand and trust that the boss has paid all your obligatories, or should I expect proper documentation?

[northway]

You are in the right, they are standard. If they refuse to give you one, be afraid.

[ontheway]

[Blanca]

So what you're saying is the boss is under no obligation to give me a payslip, and if he refuses or cant be bothered, I shouldn't be too worried?

To be honest, I can see you've been here a while etc so I take what you say on board, but I've had my question answered. Payslips are done here and if he doesn't give me one, even when I ask for it, I'm going to be worried. Not being given a proof of tax payments etc suggests he's got something to hide.

But like I said, we'll see.

[northway]

[asdfghjkl]

[Wildbore]

It is the law they provide a MONTHLY statement (payslip) for national pension and national health insurance deductions.

It is the law, that in February, they provide a income tax withholding report for the previous calender year.

They do not need to provide a deduction statement for misc. deductions. But labor law strictly prohibits payment which is not in full.

[ontheway]

[detonate]

first job, they paid in cash monthly. i moved on to seoul quickly anyways.

next place, they gave me an official looking slip with all the deductions... but later found out they had been keeping the money for themselves.

i quickly learned at a tender age that if i needed things done right, i needed to do them myself.

[Blanca]

Oh I see what you mean, ontheway.

Yeah that's pretty much my plan - the problem is claiming to know exactly what I should be paid. Payments for the water and maintenance costs for my flat are deducted at source, as well as one or two other bits that I can't remember, and obviously these will change month to month. I know I should be paid around 1.9mil per month after tax, pension and health insurance but I've only got the boss's word as to what these other costs should be.

I'm going to press the issue of getting a payslip because I may well need it when I get home anyway - you know what the tax people at home can be like if you've been away earning and have no way to prove it. If he refuses I'll be very suspicious. If it is indeed the law, and he has nothing to hide, he surely wouldn't mind giving me a payslip.

Is there a way of checking my pension, tax and insurance are being paid without the boss knowing I'm checking?

[Zoisite]

The month of April there is a health insurance adjustment where they take a a whole lot more off this month's paycheck... I had the same issue, but I found out about it through the national insurance plan.

Yeah, it is a bummer, but it only happens in April, one a year. So don't feel like you're being ripped off by your employer.

[northway]

[quote="Blanca"]Oh I see what you mean, ontheway.

Yeah that's pretty much my plan - the problem is claiming to know exactly what I should be paid. Payments for the water and maintenance costs for my flat are deducted at source, as well as one or two other bits that I can't remember, and obviously these will change month to month. I know I should be paid around 1.9mil per month after tax, pension and health insurance but I've only got the boss's word as to what these other costs should be.

I'm going to press the issue of getting a payslip because I may well need it when I get home anyway - you know what the tax people at home can be like if you've been away earning and have no way to prove it. If he refuses I'll be very suspicious. If it is indeed the law, and he has nothing to hide, he surely wouldn't mind giving me a payslip.

Is there a way of checking my pension, tax and insurance are being paid without the boss knowing I'm checking?[/quote]

I've known a couple people who got ripped off with that direct deduction crap, I'd ask to see an original bill. Also, it's not like paying bills is difficult in Korea, and I think hagwons often use this tactic with new teachers with the express intent of ripping them off.

[Troglodyte]

You've already told us that the boss is a nice guy and treated you well so far. Most of the bad hogwons are easy to spot in the first month. If you're being treated well so far, chances are your boss is not a scheming jerk who is trying to rip you off. Although, if you're really looking for a justification to do a midnight run, then I'm sure you'll eventually find enough evidence of POTENTIAL wrong doing. It doesn't necessarily give you the moral high ground. At small mom-and-pop type hogwons it's very common to do things informally. Many of them actually will go to the trouble of paying the bills for you and taking it out of your pay because they know that you're new in the country and want to make things easy for you.

If you're leaving soon anyway, do you care about health insurance? Enough to want to back pay for it? If you pull a midnight run, collecting pension also becomes more difficult (and hardly worth it if you've only worked a few months). And this is all assuming that your boss really is stealing from you. If you were going to be hanging around in Korea for a while and not bailing after 3 months, then I'd definitely recommend you get pay slips and verify that the proper deductions are being made. But you're not. You're leaving. In fact, from your other posts it really seams that your main motivation for wanting not to tell the boss you're leaving is that you want to avoid paying back airfare or other obligations.

If you really want to do things right, then find out first how much your really should be paying before you confront your boss over it. How much do you think that he MIGHT be stealing from you? The only real reason to confront the boss on this in your case is to give you a sense of moral justification for leaving without notice.

I have nothing against giving shafting a bad hogwon owner, but if you start looking for excuses to shaft a good one just to avoid your financial obligations, then really you're no better yourself than a shady employer.

Please think seriously about this while you plan your exit.

[Blanca]

You're half right. My reasons for asking for a payslip are as follows, in no particular order of importance:

1) To have proof of earnings and tax payments for the last 3 months in case the taxman comes snooping around at home. I'd really rather not risk them taking a load of money off me and keeping it until the start of the next tax year (April 2013) simply for the sake of asking a bloke for what I should legally be getting.

2) Yes, it's a test of faith. He's a good bloke but I've actually got no hard reasons to trust or not trust him. He might turn into a C U Next Tuesday as soon as I hand in a notice, he might behave amicably and get it all sorted out. It'd be nice to have a good idea of how trustworthy he is if I'm trusting him with a month's pay in advance. It just so happens that I would like to have payslips as a record anyway, this is killing two birds with one stone.

And no I don't plan to "confront" my boss over "suspicions" or "wild accusations". If he "can't" or won't get me a payslip, he's got something to hide but I'm not going to pull him up on it. I don't have anything to gain by doing that. I really couldn't care less if the Korean taxman doesn't get my money, what I'm bothered about is the behaviour of someone I'm putting my trust in, and whether or not he is prepared to let me see where my 300k I trusted him with has gone is a pretty good way to measure it. As it happens, he came to me today and said that he had no idea what a tax receipt was but that he'd ask the tax office to get me one, so it looks like him earning a trust Brownie point in any event.

Look. The best case scenario after I hand my notice in is that everything goes without a hitch - I pay him for my flights, he pays me up to date until the 23rd June and we part amicably. This looks likely at the moment, in part thanks to the Brownie point he's earned today. That said, the second best thing that can happen (and it's not unlikely, given the reputation of even seemingly-good hagwon owners) is that he gives me real, solid reasons to believe that he is an underhand, deceitful you-know-what and therefore give me a good reason to do a runner. After all, I'd keep my money and avoid all this faff of notices and whathaveyou, and would have none of the guilt. To give you an idea of the Blanca Scale of Best/Worst Case Scenarios though, the one next down from there is probably the worst thing that can happen - he cons me out of a load of money and I don't even see it coming.

So there it is fellas - me being anal about tax and a test of whether I can trust my boss all rolled into one.

[northway]