Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fustiancorduroy]

I have two questions regarding pay at my current job.

First regards contract renegotiation. All teachers at my hagwon will renegotiate their contracts this June. Currently, I am making 3.2 million. And while I feel this is a good salary, I know that I should be able to get more. I make the textbooks for the entire school, among many other writing-oriented duties, and so far both the teachers and students have sung praises for my books, which are far superior to the ones the other teachers produced before I arrived. Therefore, I know they need me for my book-making skills (and they have even said on a few occasions that I am "highly important" to their operation). Knowing this, how much of a pay increase would be appropriate? I was thinking of asking for somewhere between a 4.0 and 5.0 million per month salary.

Second regards my hagwon's new online TEPS program. My hagwon, with substantial funding from the parent company (about US $300,000), is starting an online TEPS course. I am producing original material which will serve as the basis for this course. Originally, our school was going to implement an online TOEFL course with practice tests made by yours truly. I was about to draw up a separate contract stipulating how much I would receive for each test created when the Korean universities decided they would no longer use the TOEFL. Now that my hagwon's focus is on TEPS, my role has changed. Each online lesson requires a fairly small amount of material (about 10 pages). I was told that I would receive a percentage of the course's profits once when begin charging a fee (the first three months will be free of charge in an attempt, I assume, to establish a user base), and that my material would eventually be compiled into a textbook to be published and sold nationwide (the head manager and her mother are famous published authors with many connections). This seems like an adequate pay scheme...assuming we become successful (my manager hopes to generate revenue in the tens of millions of US dollars), which is possible given that we do have a large company with a lot of money supporting us. Either way, should I ask for additional remuneration for a given number of pages produced? If so, for how much should I ask?

Thank you.

[Squid]

1. Your base salary expectation does not seem unreasonable

2. It sounds like you need to sign a publisher's contract with them where you get the standard author royalty of 6-8%, depending on what they'll agree to.

The promotional offer they talk about is entirely up to you, what do you have to lose?

Good luck