Hi guys,
I have just seen an add on Facebook: elementary school is looking for a certified English teachers, 22h per week, Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm.
Salary Rates:
NT62,720 Bachelor’s degree
NT 69,965 Master’s Degree
NT 73,025 Doctoral Degree
A lot of people left comments that the pay is way too low. Do you agree with them? How can a certified English teacher make more money? Cram schools pay less. I am very curious your opinions. Thanks
Salary is set by law. You should also consider the apartment stipend, the one year performance bonus, and the cost of the flight that they will cover.
People can earn considerably more in cram schools.
The easy way for certified teachers to earn a lot more is in the top private schools. Landing a gig in one of them is difficult.
I would direct you to the FET website and the contract that they have on there, but apparently it (the website) has been “suspended”. (I guess the government has given up trying to find any foreign teachers to reach that bilingual 2030 goal, eh?)
As a former FET, I remember that 62,720 is the starting salary for a first year foreign English teacher (that’s 0 years previous experience in “government schools” as a licensed teacher). I also remember that each subsequent degree was almost but not quite +10,000 NT. Pay went up something like 1,500/month with each year of experience.
Housing stipend was NT5,000/ month for an individual, NT10,000/month for a teacher living with their spouse or lineal relative (marriage cert/birth certificate required)
Airfare was 40,000/person/way x2 ways x2 people (one for me, one for a lineal relative (not sibling!) or spouse) That means total value of NT160,000 if you’re like me and fly yourself (and parent of choice) on premium economy. Also came to be worth half that this year because I didn’t fly home.
That’s all as of the 2019-2020 school year.
22 hours a week is actually twenty-two 40 minute classes/week. It comes out to be a lot of money per class taught, but nothing considering how long you sit at your desk waiting til 5 o’clock. Depends on how much you love Netflix/Youtube/naps at a desk.
And I had a screen shot of this on my computer…
Is there a way to make this photo automatically pop up every time someone asks about public school salaries on this website? (From the FET contract 2019-2020 school year)
That’s sad that kindergarten teachers in private schools make more than a teacher with a doctoral degree and 12 years on the job.
No wonder most English teachers at public schools are crap.
They don’t get long holidays in the summer. Also, bear in mind when kindy teachers tell you how much they earn are they taking into account the times of year when they earn nothing?
They work year round, so they are always earning. 6 hours a day, 800~900/hr. One week paid vacation a year. Most start around 650, but get 30nt raises every year. After they get near 1000/hr they don’t get raises often though.
I knew some kindy teachers at Kamchaio that made that much plus bonuses too. One teacher I know actually left the first style kindergarten for Kamchaio even though it meant taking a pay cut.
Public school teachers are on a one year renewable contract, so they are paid year-round. They get 3 (paid) weeks off for Chinese New Year plus at least a few weeks paid in the summer. The way the contracts work now, there’s a one month bonus at the end of the school year which essentially means you get 6 weeks paid summer vacation where you can go home or travel the world or do whatever you want. And there’s the flight reimbursement and housing stipend, which add up.
Also, you really only teach about 16 hours a week. The rest of the time you sit around doing your own thing. I found it mind-numbingly boring, even as I dabbled in multiple languages, got plenty of fresh air during the pandemic and sometimes went home to prep my own lunch or take a nap cuz that’s a lot of free time.
It depends on what you’re after. This discussion comes up often on Forumosa. Yes, you might be able to make more hourly at a kindergarten, cram school, or private tutoring, but are you working only the hours that they’re paying you? Do you have stability? Does it come out to “worth it” on an annual basis? It all depends on a lot of factors.
I don’t know how people can stand a job like that. I’ve always hated doing nothing.
The kindy teachers I know just work the hours, no prep or office hours. Three hours of English in the morning and three hours of math, science, music or PE in the afternoon.
The schools have hundreds of kids each, so it’s very stable and lots of parents want extra tutoring if you want to make more in evenings, easily another 80K a month if they want it.
A lot of them are ex special forces as well.
Kindy is notorious for attracting people who are economical with the truth and/or totally delusional. Kang Chiao will be among the highest paying, and that will be around 80-90k a month. How the teachers you have spoken to find enough time to score a further 80k a month teaching privates is beyond me, but I’ll accept it.
The vast majority of kindergartens close for 2 weeks during CNY and 3 weeks in August. The foreign teachers are not paid during these periods. Similarly they are not paid, and can even be fined, if they are sick or during typhoons and public holidays.
The rule of thumb is to multiply their monthly salary by 10.5 and then divide it by 12.
There are parents that pay them 1000+ an hour to watch Peppa Pig with their children or review the same lessons taught in the mornings. 80,000 was the extreme, 4 hours in the evenings. Few want to work that much. Most people are far too lazy. But my husband and I did that for 15 years. Then we had plenty of money to start our own schools and branches. I decided early I wanted to be the boss. 
Parents at Kang Chiao are generally pretty well-off. If they can’t their kids into TAS, followed by TES, then TES German Section, they ship them off to Kang Chiao. So, I could see them paying a fair amount for private tutoring. A guy I know works at TES and charges 4000 an hour for privates.
That’s ludicrous and awesome at the same time. Those are the parents that own entire floors that look like art galleries.
Sounds like @Wee is talking about fictional schools again. They also said it’s easy to make 150,000$ a month on a recent thread.
That’s just not true. Not even close. Most kindergarten teachers get 650nt per hour. They get long breaks unpaid during lunch and nap time. In reality, many make 60,000 to 65,000 per month with only one week off a year.
Regarding the posted wage for public schools is 10,000 more for housing bonus. That means 101,000 a month for the top of the grid.
Let’s not give the wrong information to people looking for advice
That’s a low end kindy with no experience. The people that take those jobs just settle for less. They lack ambition.
Anyone can easily earn over 100K teaching English in Taiwan. 30 years ago I earned over 120K a month fresh off the boat with a female Indian face. If you are white, it’s a cakewalk.
And that 150K is what I pay MY partners when I give them the schools to run. I run them myself until they get over 100 kids and generate 400K a month. Then I get 200K+ a month for every school I own.
Don’t equate your experience with what’s possible and don’t lock yourself into some dead end teaching job. Maybe you should be planning for your future instead of posting here so much.
I do just fine, thanks for asking.
That’s your opinion. But people asking about wages should be aware of the reality
It’s possible, but not right away. This usually means overtime, taking a night job, and/or tutoring. Not everyone likes to work that many hours.
Good for you, but that’s not the norm… Not in my experiences.
@Taiwan202077 the pubic school pay is pretty normal. I think it’s a good job. You get guaranteed raises and the pay grid is transparent, unlike most private schools.
Give private schools a go if you want, you can always try a few places to see what fits for you. Also, money isn’t the only factor when choosing a job.
