What is causing the stagnation of English teaching salaries?

Hey guys, last week was payday and at our buxischool they recently hired 2 abc teachers. I sort of talk to one of them sometimes. The manager pulled them into a classroom at separate times and didn’t close the door so I heard them talking. The manager was explaining to the teacher about his first months pay and how it was 480nt an hour and how the manager came up to the grand total.

During dinner break I politely and discreetly asked him why he was getting underpaid. He said it’s hard to get a teaching job as an ABC because of the reverse discrimination. He also added on that he doesn’t really need the money so its not that big a deal.

That’s great for him and the manager but I feel that is one of the reasons why English teacher salaries have been stagnating. If we aren’t willing to do exactly what they want they will just go and hire abcs to teach in the back and stick a white guy in the front when parents come to pick up their children so that the school seems like a legitimate buxischool. Actually that’s a pretty good business model?

“reverse discrimination” !!! :rofl: nearly spat my coffee out on that one! very funny very funny

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I guess Cantaloupeman123 may be talking about this kind of thing:

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Wow there. So if you don’t hire a “white face,” you’re not a legitimate cram shool? I know MANY native speaking minorities who are far better teacher than some of the “white faces” I’ve met and witnessed in the classroom, both cram school, and public schools. Just to be fair, my best friend is a Caucasian male who happened to be my mentor. What I’ve just said can easily be reversed. I’m not categorizing the entire race here, but rather responding to your statement. (As if there aren’t enough topics being discussed pertaining to this matter.)

I do agree that many ABCs are economically well-off and they do seem to drive down the wage for the other teachers. I’m not an ABC, but I am Asian thus I had been offered similar wages before, but flat-out refused and walked out. (I was getting $650 at other places and explained this) That’s what these guys should be doing, but apparently not.

I realize I’m not powerful or influential enough to change this phenomenon, so I just got an additional teaching credential to boost my resume, and got out of the cram school teaching position.

You can just refuse and find legit schools who are willing to pay for your hard work. It took me a while, but I am pretty happy with what I got now.

Keep in mind that you have to build trust with the school as well. Not many are willing to pay you top dollars right off the bat not knowing how competent or stable you might be. Far too many flaky “teachers” are also to blame here. If you put enough effort, you should be rewarded as a result.

I’m light-years from being able to make economic pronouncements, but the following text, from 2012, resembles what I’ve been reading and hearing for some time now:

“DGBAS’ outlook for Taiwan’s economy,” European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan, September 26, 2012

http://www.ecct.com.tw/events_reportdetail.aspx?pcseq=4&cseq=70&seq=676

I’m not a statistician, either, but this text also resembles, in essence, what I’ve read and heard in recent years:

[quote]Within a decade, from 2003 to 2013, in Taiwan, the amount of birth rate has decreased 15%, approximately 27,000 newborns in total, whereas numbers of cram schools have increased by 93.2%, reaching 9,116. In the face of violent low birth rate, numbers of cram schools yet jump up. Cram schools are run by the means of either multi-roles playing to cut down costs of human resources, or low-price strategies to add numbers of students. But under highly competitive circumstances, no one seems able to distinguish from the pack. Used-to-be-successful business management does not work out.[/quote]–Abstract of Che-Hao Hsu, Study on Competitive Strategies of Foreign Language Schools with Effect of Low Child Birth Rate, Master’s thesis, National Sun Yat-sen University, Submitted August 11, 2014

That’s what I remember hearing and reading as the reason for stagnating English teaching salaries: a relatively sluggish economy, a low birthrate, and (at least earlier) an increase in the number of cram schools.

In the above, I’m not stating what I know; I’m just stating the general sense of things that I’ve picked up in the last, say, eight or ten years.

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isn’t figuring out how to pay their staff less and get them to work more standard practice for Taiwanese bosses?

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What happens? that they are overpaid and have no real skills nor relevant qualifications in most of the cases? How much does an mid level manager make in Taiwan, and how much do you think you have to make?

Have a nice weekend.

just don’t be surprised when taiwanese bosses do what they are doing (and getting away with) across the board.

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Nah I don’t believe that a white face school = a legitimate school but Taiwanese parents continue to believe that

  1. All salaries are stagnant in Taiwan.
  2. The number of students is gradually going down in Taiwan and that of course is impacting English teacher requirements. Less demand.
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Salaries are stagnant at the Uni I work at as well. And as tango said they’re pretty much stagnant across the country and across all fields. This is a national problem, not a cabal of shady cram-school owners screwing over “white faces” or ABCs.

(That said, I feel like the sketchiness of Cantaloupeman’s buxiban could be its own seperate discussion)

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Yes in most fields they are. I work in a high tech area and the company gives 2 or 4% raises as standard.
Need more cash you usually have to.switch company. Well that’s a common issue everywhere.

The only folks that I have heard get big offers in general recently are semiconductor engineers that are in demand (eg micron>) and pilots. If course there are other professions in demand but what happens in Taiwan is they go freelance or open their own forms as the culture here is really mean to employees.

But as an individual you always can break through salary barriers you need to show your skills, experience, money earning potential, charm and a good dose of luck too.

Do you think it will only get worse in the coming years?

Where I work, we have on going evaluations, and yearly pay reviews. Generally teachers can expect anywhere up to a 10% pay increase, and it is all dependent on how much effort teachers put into their job. :slight_smile:

Where do you work :wink:

I keep seeing the same job posted. Same details every time. Dude, if nobody you want to hire is applying, you need to raise the pay. If you keep advertising the exact same position, applicants should on average get steadily worse

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I want new teachers I can pay as low as possible but I want them to hit the road running without me bothering myself to train them.

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