Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ManintheMiddle]

As should be painfully obvious, the KRW has been devalued by nearly 40% relative to the USD over the past 11 months, which begs the question:

What, if anything, is your employer doing about it?

Is he open to renegotiation, at least with a contract renewal?

Are you simply just hoping to ride out this latest wave of the financial tsunami, or hoping that the prices of everyday items will fall accordingly?

Or are you resigned to your plight?

Frankly, I can't imagine why anyone without family ties to this place would remain beyond their current contract without a raise to compensate for the dismal performance of the won?

(On a personal note, I pulled out back in late May after seeing the writing on the proverbial wall; ironically, the director of my former university graduate program in Seoul now makes less in terms of real spending power than I do as an assistant professor elsewhere in Asia)

Anyway, what's your take on this turn of events?

[John_ESL_White]

I use the falling won as a bargaining chip when I negotiate my pay rate.

Even though the cost of living has not risen for me, I lie to whoever I am negotiating with and tell them that the falling won has hurt me terribly.

I go so far as to bring in a nice color chart that shows how much the won is worth compared to the dollar these days compared to one year ago.
The Koreans usually fall for it. - i'm a good salesman-

The falling won has been a godsend to me. I've increased my hourly salary by 20% for businesses and 10% for individuals.

But, I'm a lifer, married, etc. If I wasn't, I'd be in China.

[hogwonguy1979]

unless you are on an f2 doing privates or free lance work, you got a better chance of having a threesome with Scarlett Johannsen and Salma Hayek (or whatever 2 hot guys you ladies dream of) than getting a raise based on the falling value of the won. In fact salaries at least at the univ level has gone DOWN in won terms vs 2002 based on ads here.

you may be able to negoit with your employer about doing legal outside work but even thats a gamble.

best bet is to negotiate with your creditors back home on reducing bills and ride this out. creditors seem to be adaptable to this. they'll take a little less now than writing off the entire balance of a loan etc

[rooster_2006]

I got a raise by 5,000 won an hour for my groups of first and third graders that I teach privately, but the rate I had been getting was absolutely abysmal, so this raise only brought it up to the absolute lowest end of normal. I told them that at the current exchange rate, I simply could not continue to pay for my education, which is true. The rate I had been getting was so low, they knew they'd never find another native for that price, especially one who could explain things in Korean to the young children. So they reluctantly gave me a raise.

Still, aside from that, it's looking really bad. Most teachers who signed contracts before the won devaluation hit are still here, and they're desperate for money too, and apparently a lot of them are working for 15,000 or 20,000 won per hour for private lessons, even if they have to travel!

I can't really blame the English teachers who work cheaply, I'm all for Adam Smith's invisible hand, but I don't think the change in the won is really helping for negotiating more won -- Koreans also have less money to spend on us.

[cruisemonkey]

[John_ESL_White]

[rooster_2006]

[Big Mac]

Why do Koreans care? They don't change their money into US dollars. As far as they're concerned, you don't need to either.

The devalued won has yet to hurt me. I have no bills back home, so I have no need to change my money.

I'm just holding on to the money until better times.

It also isn't as bad for me. The exchange rate for Canadian dollars is more favourable than it is for US dollars. It has also gone down significantly for us though. But again, it only matters if you have to send money home.

I'm planning to change all my money into Australian dollars anyway, since I want to go to teacher's college there in 2010. The exchange rate for Australian dollars is even better than the Canadian rate, though I bet it has also gone down recently just like all the others. I just hope it will get better by the time I leave.

[jbpatlanta]

[losing_touch]

My boss offered us a 200,000 won pay raise during these difficult times.

[thegadfly]

Just curious -- would you offer to work for less money if the won appreciated in value against your home currency? I mean, say you are getting paid 3 million a month with the won at 1,500 to the US dollar...would you offer to work for 1.8 million if the exchange dropped to 900 to the US dollar? Probably not -- you'd just be thrilled to be getting almost double your salary for a while....

Sword cuts both ways.

[rooster_2006]

[John_ESL_White]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[buster brown]

Unless you offerred money back to your employer back in November 2007 when the rate got close to 900Won:1USD, don't go asking for extra pay now that the rate has swung wildly the other way! This is just one of the risks you take when you choose to work in another country.