Korean Job Discussion Forums

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Have salary offers been about the same for two (or 2.5) years?

Salary offers have leveled off (or plateaued).

Do you think the amount will increase soon?
When was the last noticeable increase in salaries?

kylehawkins2000 · Joined: 08 Apr 2003

I really don't think they've changed much in 3 or more years....perhaps marginally......but certainly not on par with inflation. Work in the change in the exchange rate and the amount that westerners are earning in their home currency has probably receded....

Morning Calm · Joined: 28 Jan 2003

Salaries have certainly changed within the last three years. 3 years ago, 1.6 ~ 1.8 were pretty common. I don't know very many school that have the balls to offer that anymore, maybe YBM does, but they are definately on the low end of the tottem.

Nowadays, 1.9 ~ 2.1 are pretty common. This depends if you run your resume through a recruiter I guess. There are schools that are offering alot more, but for very good reasons that you should veer away from.

If your lucky, you can get a good offer from a rookie school who has no idea what their doing, but salaries will stay the same for another couple of years because they have gotten to the max of what they can offer in terms of the fee they charge the students. If you have a school that has an enrollment of less than 300 students and they hire 2 to 3 teachers, unless they want to go broke, 2.0 is about their max.

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

The Lemon · Joined: 11 Jan 2003

kylehawkins2000 · Joined: 08 Apr 2003

Thanks for proving my point Lemon!

The won is up, yes.....that means the amount that you earn (when converted to US, CAN, or OZ dollars) is less than it once was. EG. 2 000 000won is now around $2200 Canadian. About two years ago it was more like $2500 Canadian.......or something like that.....I'm not digging out the old calculator here....

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

I hadn't realized that the Korean won had dropped quite so much in the last few months. Last I checked was at the start of the year when the Won was trading at 770 for a Canadian dollar, and when I arrived in August of 2001 it was trading at 830 or so, and the Won had been strengthing steadily for a while prior to my arrival. Nor did I know that in late 2000 the Won took a 20% nosedive in two months.

Thus I am now enlightened. Good thing I had been sending money back to Canada as I've been going along.