How much should I be earning with my qualifications and experience?

  • Master’s degree in International Business and Management
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Politics and International Relations
  • 120-Hour TEFL Certificate (June 2019)
  • 6 months experience tutoring English as a foreign language in a vocational college (so 18 to 25 year olds) in Hong Kong (Dec 2019 - End of May 2020) - that was the contract length, the programme I was on was ended after so I left.
  • Been tutoring English as a foreign language and politics A Level online since July 2020.

Should I be asking for 70k a month minimum (assuming 20 hours a week, so 875NTD)? Or 60k? (or less? Or more than both these figures??) - I have not actually taught a class as such. I taught very small workshops at the vocational college and did a lot of one-on-one tutoring. I was basically an in-house tutor for a vocational college that was partnered with the educational charity I worked for, so I will need a bit of training to start with.

This will be my first time teaching in Taiwan.

Your salary will ultimately be decided by how many hours you teach. The type of jobs you will be able to get will mostly pay by the hour, anywhere between 600 and 800. Most people teach around 20 hours a week as far as I know.

I have seen quite a few jobs being offered for 70k, but many of them are out in Taichung. Is 70k not normal for 20hrs a week?

Most jobs offer an hourly rate and a number of contact hours (that often is lower after you start working there). So, are you looking to only apply for jobs that offer 875NT or more an hour or planning to negotiate the offered hourly rate higher?

To be honest I don’t think you have enough experience to negotiate much, but it’s always worth a try. How many years post TEFL teaching experience do you have?

I only have the experience that I have written above. I am just wondering what you think my hourly rate should be (for roughly 20 hours a week)? I know I don’t have a huge amount of experience, but I have seen a lot of people writing that for instance…650 an hour is way too low, even for a newbie.

It’s not really a case of what your hourly rate should be, it’s what it will be. It definitely won’t be less than 600 an hour, but I can’t see you commanding anywhere close the 875NT you’re hoping for.

To be honest, I think you’ll get offered somewhere between 600 and 700 an hour. The number of hours will then depend upon how many teaching hours the buxiban (cram school) can offer and/or how many hours you are prepared to teach. Your master’s makes you more marketable as they’ll put a copy of that on the wall for parents to see.

However, I have been out of the buxiban market for a while, so things may be different now. It’s probably a case of applying for the higher paying gigs and seeing what happens. I know one new teacher who got a peach of a job with Happy Marian - paid 100k a month. That was mainly kindy and he has open work rights, though.

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Thank you, this was the kind of answer I was looking for. Down to earth and explaining the possibilities!

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You’re welcome, sir! But bear in mind that there are a lot of factors involved and I’m not necessarily right. Location is one example. Taipei is probably going to pay more (although I’ve been hearing that hourly rates in Hsinchu are the most).

To each his own but I would take places with good recommendations or reputation, over slightly higher pay any day if the week. Given the number of nightmarish experiences I hear about I think that should be your number one consideration.

I would really appreciate if you were to tell me some examples of good schools/chains in Taipei? I really really don’t want a miserable first year. Thank you.

Every school is different and the environment is always changing. If you have been living in Hong Kong then you probably have experienced some of the culture shock that most westerners go through.

Your experience is less than a year and somewhat specialized. What matters more is your appearance. Are you clean cut? White? Clear American accent? Are you in Taiwan now?

You can probably find a job teaching English to High schoolers but those jobs are fewer in number and the hours might not add up to $60,000.

If you teach younger expect to start at the bottom of the pay scale: $650 an hour.

Clean cut, white, British (but can do American accent), not in Taiwan. (In UK).

With so many flakes teaching in Taiwan they will prefer a bird in the hand. Best to come to Taiwan and start interviewing.

Uhm…I can’t, you need a work visa to go there during Covid. No tourist visas, no seeking work visas.

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HESS, Shane, Gloria, Giraffe etc for your first year. Then figure out where the better jobs are.

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About as much as a Tim Hortons barista. :cowboy_hat_face:

Joking — I would say around 70K min.

Wait a sec. It is almost the same.

Baristas make 14 dollars an hourX40 hoursX 52 weeks 29,000 CDN per year.
70,000 month in Taiwan=36,000 CDN per year.

" How much should I be earning with my qualifications and experience?

As per virtually any business, qualifications and experience get you hired. Nothing more.

Your pay directly reflects how much you make the company and whther you are worth keeping you on board. With oerhead for most companies, you should be creating at the bare minimum 4x the revenue for the company that you recieve in salary. If you expect $100,000nt to month best be sure they are grossing 400k off you or its just a relationship “i like you” kind of job… Not saying its bad, but expect the emotion and politics involved with maintaining relationships if you arent delivering numbers.

Each countries costs are different, so might be fair to say 3 to 5 times your wage, you should be earning.your employer for them to assume you are at the bare minimum worth keeping.

Then, one might say…fuck that if i make them.3x my wage i just open my own company. and to those i say, welcome to reality. Doable, but dont expect off days or free time, like all first generation entrepreneurs.
Fight for yoyr pay, but dont be an entitled child if you cant deliver. Work isnt charity. And your boss has probbaly son emore work to make things work than most people want to accept.

I’m asking in relation to teaching jobs in Taiwan specifically, if you have any info…?

70k, thank you

You would make more than that teaching if you had fulltime work though.

14cdn an hour is low for a teacher here