Korean Job Discussion Forums

[duke of new york]

I think it is pretty well established on this forum that 3.3% is an incorrect but extremely commonly offered tax rate, usually hiding the fact that the employer is trying to hire you as an independent contractor. According to the advice in the contract review thread, when you receive a contract like this, you should immediately point out the tax rate and insist that it be corrected. The employer/recruiter can then either

1. Admit the rate is wrong and correct it, or
2. Argue in the face of overwhelming evidence and refuse to change the contract (or just stop contacting you).

Obviously, in the event of 2, reject the offer and probably stop dealing with the recruiter altogether if there is one. My question is, firstly, does 1 even ever happen? In other words, is it even possible to get a legitimate contract out of an exploitative (or at least shaky) one through negotiation? And if this does happen, assuming the negotiated contract is solid and contains everything you need, should you accept the offer, even in light of the fact that you were originally sent a bad contract, which could reflect on the employer's business ethics in general?

I feel inclined to immediately throw out any offer that initially states an inflated tax rate, but I'm worried that it is nearly impossible to get a fair contract right off the bat, and you just have to arrive at one through negotiation. Obviously I'm not talking about rejecting contracts without negotiating things like hours, pay, and discrepancies in wording, I'm talking about contracts specifically with erroneous tax rates.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[duke of new york]

Yes, that's exactly what I was asking. Thanks for helping.

Now that you mention that, how can you avoid a hagwon giving you a different contract than the one you agreed upon before you arrive in Korea? Seems like you would be royally screwed--without you signing a contract, the school would not be obligated to reimburse you for your flight to Korea, much less your return airfare. I can't imagine you could hold them to a contract agreed upon before you left, could you?

So unless you wanted to pay for a vacation to Korea out of your pocket, you would be forced to take whatever contract they give you? As dishonest as many hagwons are, why don't they just offer everyone good contracts, then pull the ol' switcheroo as soon as the teacher arrives?

Is there any way to ensure this doesn't happen?

[marsavalanche]

I was recently job hunting before settling and only one job interview didn't have the 3.3% tax. I've called them out numerous times, and have only had it changed ONCE (which is the job I'm eventually signed with).

So yes it is possible, although slim to none chance that they will change it (in my experience with interviews).

Either a) They won't budge, which has happened to me multiple times despite me showing them the website where you calculate the CORRECT tax rate
b) They rescind their offer, which has also happened to me since the school KNOWS, if you don't accept it, the next dumbo who didn't do his research will (the funny thing is, I recently received a PM from a teacher getting fired after 1 week asking for help since I blacklisted that same school which had a 5% tax rate, LOL).

My advice would to be assuming you're not tight on time/money keep rejecting crap offers. If they aren't going to meet with you on the correct tax rate, they WILL screw you in other ways. Eventually one good job will come up, albeit longer than you expect. But it's worth it imo.

And good for you for sticking up for yourself. Too many dumb foreigners here taking awful contracts and letting themselves get stepped on.

[duke of new york]

[TheUrbanMyth]