Is it normal for private schools to not be open to negations at all?
Or would there be a better chance once I get an offer? I tried at the interview and they didn’t seem at all open even when I pointed out that the public schools offer a better deal.
I am pretty desperate to get to Taiwan soon but I also don’t want to make a poor decision. The school seems like a nice place
Typical of Taiwanese employers .
I would never NOT negotiate higher pay (or at least calculate out the total value of your package and walk away from anyone who isn’t giving you what you think you’re worth). A BA and no teaching experience at a public school comes out to about 65,000/mo after health care and taxes have been taken out and your housing stipend has been added. But then you’ve got NT160,000 in airfare that is a nice bonus to that. Also, are you expected to run summer camps/will they give you more than 6 national holidays and one week at CNY off? Private school often “forget” to mention that, but public schools do give you about 6 weeks off, even if you have to teach a 3 day camp at the beginning of the summer.
EDIT: The school I’m at now went up NT20,000/mo after I said their offer was too low. They were obviously low-balling me with the initial offer, but that’s a LOT of money I’d have left on the table.
I consider public school pay + benefits to be the lowest anyone should go. Unless you take Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, in which case, Morrison’s posted monthly salary of 50,000/mo is fine.
It’s highly unlikely you’ll negotiate a pay rise after accepting their initial offer.
These are my thoughts as well. I do feel a bit desperate to enter the country but I’m not looking to be made a fool either. It’s true that there are more important things than money, but money still is not only important but essential.
They are offering a lower salary (650000 a month) which is the entry salary for public school but I have a year of experience (ok 6 months plus one year at cram school) and a master’s. At public school that means 70,000 plus 5,000 extra for housing plus summer and winter paid and airfare. They did explicitly say no summer camps and one of their selling points was that they pay for summer and teachers don’t physically have to sit in office hours. They claimed public school teachers have to sit in office hours during summer to be paid. I’m not sure if that’s really true though?
When I brought it up, they said they would only give me these things after I sign a second contract and told me a story about how one if their teachers flew home 3 weeks into his contact. But I’m thinking why did he feel like he had to do that? They said the first year acts as a trial and then benefits are earned through loyalty which also felt a bit insulting/degrading. It’s ok to offer incentives for loyalty, resigning but not when those things are already supposed to be standard.
They haven’t made an offer yet, but it seems like they likely will based on the interview. Most likely, I’ll be waiting out the announcements of openings at public schools in new Taipei or Taoyuan. I know I can get a job there because teach Taiwan already offered me a position in Taichung (it’s just too far for me I have personal connections in new Taipei as I’m moving largely to be with my girlfriend).
Taiwanese schools can be a bit degrading towards new teachers. It’s part of the culture. The school I’m at now takes teachers with more than one year at the school abroad (expenses paid) for a week in April, puts their names in for raffles for iPhones and NT50,000 red envelopes at CNY, etc. Don’t take it too personally but also never let that be an incentive to stay!
But with the public school pay: you get a contract for 11 months. That’s typically Aug 15 to July 15, though the actual dates vary. Your aug pay starts from the day you arrived in Taiwan (so if you get there Aug 20, you don’t get paid for those 5 days on your contract). As for desk warming, depends on the school. Usually FETs leave around July 5 and still get paid through July 15. The 12th month of pay is a “bonus”, so as long as no one hates you, you get paid that at the end of the contract year. I do remember some FETs having to warm desks during CNY break and through July 15, but that’s not a problem the past two years because COVID caused school delays through July! Also, you might have to warm desks, but you’re free to watch YouTube or learn a new language, etc. cuz no one cares what you do while you desk warm at any point in the year. I would go on two hour long walks almost daily and no one ever said anything to anyone that had anything to say to me (indirect culture of not speaking directly to me 
maybe everyone hated me but I didn’t know) I was always on time and prepped for classes though!
I have found private schools can be truly unaware of public school benefits or really convinced that they don’t offer what you’re claiming. Or they say they don’t have the budget to give you so many benefits. At that point, don’t take the job! Money isn’t everything, but if a school is unwilling to offer you comparable wages to the public schools, they probably have other problems/are just looking for any white face to have in their school and don’t really care about your qualifications. Not to keep bringing up “the school I’m at now”, but I know they cared more about my skin color and nationality than my decade of teaching experience and Chinese fluency. Their initial salary offer reflected that
It’s unfortunately very true. You can negotiate this with your principal and director though depending on how good your Mandarin is. The “standard” is that you have to be in the office though. Quite annoying.
I think it might actually be ok for me since I want to study chinese. The paid time at school might be helpful in staying disciplined in terms of studying. I’m also working on a book so it actually might be ok for me.
This sounds reasonable to me. I think it makes sense and I shouldnt let my desperation to be closer to Taipei let me become short sighted or taken advantage of. I agree there seem to be some red flags regarding their attitude towards benefits. There’s also a logical lapse in their explanation the more I think about it. If they’re worried about teachers leaving early, that shouldn’t affect the benefits only the salary. It would only impact how much they spent if they offered a higher salary. Either way they’d have to put in money to recruit a replacement. So I don’t see how cutting benefits and reserving them only for a second contract explains this decision.
I guess I’m just surprised, because I had expected private schools with their larger income from tuition to offer higher salary or benefits. I expected them to, at the very least, match public school positions. How can they possibly compete in terms of recruitment if they can’t even match the public school jobs? Just seems backwards.
It is a free market though. They will likely get what they pay for if they offer this lower rate.
Salaries actually make up a huge portion of the expenses for schools. I calculated out at my school, based on salaries alone, it’s about a third of the tuition income. Add the flights home for foreign teachers, fancy dinners and hongbao’s and trips abroad and I’m wondering if our school makes any profit at all.
Most private schools do have lower qualifications required for teachers than the public ones. Generally, a TESOL certification + 1 year of experience is enough to be an “ESL” teacher in a Taiwanese private elementary school. If you’re being asked to teach ESL in Taiwan, you already know that the school doesn’t take English language education seriously. But it’s not a bad job for someone who has taught in a cram school for a year or two and wants something more stable or is trying to get experience while working on a license.
Schools with higher salaries have higher standards. Generally, a teaching license in your field and at least 2 years of teaching experience in schools specifically – tutoring, internships and cram schools don’t count. You want to work at TAS or TES and you’ll probably need at least a Masters and 5 years teaching experience in the subject you’ll be teaching. Hence the higher pay.
People here are also racist AF. An ABC with a masters in TESOL from a top university and years of experience will be overlooked for a white person with a BA that fits the minimum requirements, probably 99% of the time. I know I’ve been offered jobs that my Taiwanese coteachers, who all have BA’s + Masters from US universities, were straight up denied.