Korean Job Discussion Forums

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

I'll join in the fray. I like the salary I get. I was making more in the states but spending way way way more, every goddamn bill u can think of I was paying. It got so I would stand in the store for 10 minutes debating on Kraft or generic mac and cheese.

stalinsdad · Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Jeonju

Well thanks for the response, I think Dogbert you are being particular about currency exchange, if the won is pegged to the yen and the yen is in effect pegged to the dollar, then they are all pegged.
Someone mentioned doing privates, well I have too much to lose and i'm not a criminal(some of us have standards). About going to japan or other countries, not really the point! Well maybe the person who described him/herself as a babysitter, not all of us aspire to your high standards of teaching(sarcasm). About net pay etc. On paper we can save more in Korea, but the lack of security and services, as well as the feeling that if we were run over, no one would give a shit is definitely worth 500,000w a month. It really does make me laugh that most teachers here think that they're covered by the minimum medical insurance that they pay(and if the director pays) will cover them for all eventualities. I hope those of you who have motorbikes etc have very good insurance because if you break your back, coma, brain damage etc etc it won't pay for the treatment you'll need or the cost of repatriation to your home country. Your on your own here so be careful!

crazycanuck · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Location: Incheon

Long time teacher here. As for raising the pay. The best way to do this is to scan the job listings on Dave's ESL. Print out the jobs that pay well, highlighting the monthly wage. Take about 10 of these advertisements with you to an interview. Tell the Director that you are very interested in working for his school but that you have to wait for a few answers from some of the other schools that you have applied for. Do this after you have been offered the job...You may be able to get another 100,000- 200,000 won a month out of them...This has worked for me in the past. The highest rate hike I received was 200,000 won per month. Funny thing is everyone else got the same rate hike!!! And not one of them took me out for a steak.
Pay goes up with fluctuations in the Korean economy. Right now the exchange is not too great. Most people don't know why. There are a lot of reasons. Over the past 7 years I have noticed that the rate is usually good in mid November and sometime in March and April (check the historical data), so save in Korea and wait. This year though South Korea is faced with a crisis where 14,000,000 credit card holders (impacting maybe 50 companys with the LG name) couldn't use their cards. Anyone can see the impact that would have on Christmas spending...This past November was a bad time to send money home. If you have loans to pay off ...wait. They will be happy to have their money in one, two, or three months if you don't pay them each month. Try to explain it to them...they may actually listen. If they don't like it...tough, wait anyway...What are they going to do? As long as there aren't any major penalties and you pay everything in the end, there is no problem. Pay rates should go up in the summer barring another major financial crisis.
As for the wage that I do earn here in Korea, I always compare it with the situation in Canada. In Korea I earn 100,000 won. I have to pay a bill for my internet that is 37,000 won. I am left with 63,000 won in my pocket to do with what I please. In Canada, the government helps themselves to roughly 25 % of my 100,000 (that would leave me with 75,000 won for those of you who are mathematically challenged) before I get a chance to hide it. Then they add another 14% to my internet bill
raising the price to 42,000 won. After paying the bill I have 33,000 won left. This example is just a cost of living example. You could go further and figure that you are saving about 400,000 won a month on rent. Multiplied by 12 that is a nice nest egg that you could NEVER have in Canada. Figure out how much you save on tax alone!!! 2,000,000 a month, that is about 500,000 a month. Multiply that by 12 again...Just the two items, tax and apartment savings amount to about 10,800,000 won a year. Good luck trying to do that in Canada...