Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BananaBan]

I received a job offer outlining the general details of a teaching position. i said i liked the job (due to non-morning hours and location). the recruiter then sent me resume to the school.


i then browsed through the contract page of this forum and came across the fact that a 3.3% means i am hired as a "contractor" thus i have to pay for my own pension and health insurance. (i knew i should have read this page before hand!

i looked back at my contract outline and i noticed that:
>the income tax was stated to be 3.3%.
>medical insurance is to be 50/50 between school and teacher.
>no mention of a pension.

so, is this bad? should i avoid working here?
what should i do?
btw, the school is SLP (yes, im aware of the slave labour program reference)

please help?

[Rutherford]

I taught at a hogwan several years ago and was taxed at the 3.3% rate but had no problem with pension and health.

I would ask to have pension added to the contract.

If you take this job, be vigilant about everything being registered in a timely manner. Make sure you get an ARC card. Insist on getting the official booklet from the national health insurance office and call the pension office to make sure you've been registered.

If they don't do any of these things, politely insist. If you seem very on top of it you're less likely to have any problems. If they delay for months or refuse to register you, you'll know what kind of school you're dealing with.

Bring an extra set of all your documents just in case.

[BananaBan]

[thegadfly]

If your base salary is 2.83 million or so a month, then 3.3% is the correct tax rate, or pretty close. If you make less than that a month, you are being overtaxed.

http://www.nts.go.kr/eng/help/help_56.asp?top_code=H001&sub_code=HS05&ssub_code=HSE4

...so you can punch the numbers in and see what you SHOULD be taxed, and what you WOULD be taxed...so, for example, if you actually only make 2.1 million:

you SHOULD be taxed 28,390 won a month,

but at 3.3%, you WOULD be taxed at 69,300 won a month,

for a net loss of 40,910 won a month, or about 490,000 won a year.

If you get pension and health coverage, and the job is good in all other ways, it might be worthwhile to go ahead and take a 500k hit over the year -- in the scheme of things, 500k less isn't such a big deal. What IS a big deal is the attitude and approach of management trying to nickel and dime the teachers, which would make management seem untrustworthy, which would make me question other things management had said about the job.

Now, there IS the chance that the owner is "innocently" doing taxes this way -- that is, if they DO pay your health insurance and pension (if you could verify that it had been done for previous teachers), then I would say it might be ok to take the job -- lazy accountants might be giving the boss misinformation, while the boss might actually be legit...but it would mean your potential boss is also lazy, or stupid, or does not pay attention to details, which are ALSO all bad signs....

[TheUrbanMyth]

[jrwhite82]

[BananaBan]

[ttompatz]

[jrwhite82]

It does happen but it's definitely not the standard. It is easy enough to check with said agencies to make sure they are in fact receiving your contributions.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[BananaBan]

In case some other newbies come across this looking for help, TheUrbanMyth has also mentioned other useful info elsewhere:

Independent Contractor.

Drawbacks to being an IC:

1. You must pay pension yourself. Pension is set at 9% of salary on a monthly basis. As an employee your employer would pay half of that and you would pay the other half. If you are Canadian, American or Australian you can get the WHOLE amount back at years' end. So the amount that you contributed PLUS your employer's share. BUT if you are an IC then you have to pay the whole thing...so you only get your money back and not your employer's share.

2. The same deal (only you don't get it back) applies with medical insurance. He pays half of it and you pay the other half if you are an employee. But an IC pays the entire thing.


3. As an IC you are NOT entitled to the yearly annual bonus (severance). So that's an extra month's pay you are missing out on.


4. You may also not get airfare back to your home country.


How can you find out? By looking at the contract. If it says "independent contractor" anywhere in there give it a pass. Also by lack of pension/medical insurance/severance. Be warned though that some bosses are sneaky and do not say that you will be listed as an IC in which case you would look to see that pension and medical insurance are included in the contact. And make sure it is the public version of medical insurance not any private plans as they cover less.

thanks again to TheUrbanMyth