Payslips

[#basedcowboyshirt]

It's like pulling teeth to get a payslip from my school. Does anyone else have this problem? And when I do, it's all in Korean.

I'm a person who likes to keep track of and monitor my payments and finances, and it's immensely frustrating not being able to see exactly how much I'm getting paid.

I'd just like to actually see with my own eyes that I'm actually getting paid for my overtime, paid leaves, etc.

[adamwatch]

Been here many years same problem. It means when your wages go down you are never sure why? You can ask of course and you may or may not get a good answer.
I often wonder if korean teachers get pay slips every month. Anyone know? Also how much do they get paid?

Adam

[eider]

The only thing they put on the pay slip is your deductions for pension, insurance, lunch, and some kind of deduction for old people. They are not really clear on this. I have never seen anything written about overtime pay on the payslip.

[#basedcowboyshirt]

The only thing they put on the pay slip is your deductions for pension, insurance, lunch, and some kind of deduction for old people. They are not really clear on this. I have never seen anything written about overtime pay on the payslip.

Then how do you know if you're actually getting paid for it or not?

[Morticae]

I think it may be an additional deposit to your account, not lumped together with your salary.

[kate.d]

It is additional.  My normal pay comes on the 25th of the month, and I got them to give me a pay slip for that, but for the extra lessons they give it to me after the 1st of the next month, bc if a class gets canceled I won't get paid for it.  I don't get any slip for those classes but it is pretty easy to see if they are paying me for those extra hours if I keep track of how many I teach, if none get cancled I have 27 per week, so five overtime, at 20,000 per class.  The weird thing is I teach at 4 schools, and some of them seem to be taking out taxes and some are not.  whatever. 

[hwana]

Does anyone else have this problem?

Yes! I've been here for 4 months and been trying to get payslips for the last 2, but with no luck yet..

[amn34]

It's like pulling teeth to get a payslip from my school. Does anyone else have this problem? And when I do, it's all in Korean.

I'm a person who likes to keep track of and monitor my payments and finances, and it's immensely frustrating not being able to see exactly how much I'm getting paid.

I'd just like to actually see with my own eyes that I'm actually getting paid for my overtime, paid leaves, etc.

My school has been great in the beginning, but now there has been some funky stuff.  Like one teacher telling me that from now on, I have to contribute 50,000won from each paycheck to the school so that if someone has a baby or wedding or funeral, we can give them flowers, etc.  Also, last week I noticed that an extra 900,000 was put into my debit account through a wire transfer about a week before my paycheck arrives, and my school is the only place that has access to my accounts.  I have no idea what the money is from and I got my paycheck in full later on that week.  I'm a bit worried to spend it, because I feel like a while down the road they might say there was an administrative mistake and ask for it back.  Who knows...

[kdm04y]

I've only managed to get one payslip and it had the wrong name on it! It was the name of the foreign teacher before me.
I always get paid the right amount and on time so it's not really a big deal.

[hankmcmasters]

my school gives me a pay slip with deductions for lunch, tax, pension, and health care.
its all laid out in a confusing spreadsheet, but i do have the information.  so, it is possible for schools to do this.  i usually just have to go ask the guy in the 해정실  or general affairs office to print me a copy.

there are also other things that they are trying to sign me up for, like a school "social club"  that costs 10,000won a month, i bet these would be listed too.

my after school payments and other over time are grouped separately, so i get two deposits a few days after i get my monthly salary.

amn34:  you can check where the deposit came from in your bank book, or with online banking if you use that.  if it didn't come from your school, I would call your bank.  deposits from my school come from the national agricultural bank, or they have the name of my school listed.  its pretty easy to distinguish where a deposit came from.  seems like a good idea to not spend that money until you know where it came from

[amn34]

amn34:  you can check where the deposit came from in your bank book, or with online banking if you use that.  if it didn't come from your school, I would call your bank.  deposits from my school come from the national agricultural bank, or they have the name of my school listed.  its pretty easy to distinguish where a deposit came from.  seems like a good idea to not spend that money until you know where it came from

I checked it out with my bankbook but of course it was all in Korean and the only thing the translation offered was "wire transfer from a second bank."

[eider]

The only thing they put on the pay slip is your deductions for pension, insurance, lunch, and some kind of deduction for old people. They are not really clear on this. I have never seen anything written about overtime pay on the payslip.

Then how do you know if you're actually getting paid for it or not?

it just gets deposited but sometimes they deposit in random amounts....I'm assuming its for business trips?

[Koradian]

Here is what a sample pay slip looks like from the administration at my school.

I included the English translations so I hope this helps some teachers out!

[foreverJ]

It's like pulling teeth to get a payslip from my school.
ditto

At my current school, I've requested to receive monthly payslips several times, but to no avail. I received one, once, and was told that it will be same every month, so I can just check that one. LOL what a joke! That totally defies the point! No to mention being completely unofficial. Don't people here need payslips for official purposes?

[Davey]

Been here many years same problem. It means when your wages go down you are never sure why? You can ask of course and you may or may not get a good answer.
I often wonder if korean teachers get pay slips every month. Anyone know? Also how much do they get paid?

Adam

they don't, but they can ask for it.

how much do KTs get paid? a lot (not ENTIRELY of course) depends on how long they've been teaching. generally speaking, we get paid more than they do, especially factoring in our housing allowance. yes, i do know that KTs get bonuses during the year, but even after those, we still generally end up getting more.

for instance, i started off with a salary of 2.2 mil (Daejeon + TEFL + taught at two schools), which is the same salary of a KT with OVER 5 years of experience. if you take into account the housing allowance (approximately 400,000W), i was getting 2.6 mil, a stipend which would take roughly 10 years for a KT to attain.

[Koradian]

Been here many years same problem. It means when your wages go down you are never sure why? You can ask of course and you may or may not get a good answer.
I often wonder if korean teachers get pay slips every month. Anyone know? Also how much do they get paid?

Adam

they don't, but they can ask for it.

how much do KTs get paid? a lot (not ENTIRELY of course) depends on how long they've been teaching. generally speaking, we get paid more than they do, especially factoring in our housing allowance. yes, i do know that KTs get bonuses during the year, but even after those, we still generally end up getting more.

for instance, i started off with a salary of 2.2 mil (Daejeon + TEFL + taught at two schools), which is the same salary of a KT with OVER 5 years of experience. if you take into account the housing allowance (approximately 400,000W), i was getting 2.6 mil, a stipend which would take roughly 10 years for a KT to attain.

This is incorrect. Being a teacher in Korea is quite a prestigious position. They are well compensated. But, there are KT's who are hired on contract to teach English just like we are. We have one of these KTs and her salary is 1.8 million. As for my other co-workers, who are not yearly contracted instrustors, all make more than I do and I'm at Level 1 with EPIK.

[Davey]

Been here many years same problem. It means when your wages go down you are never sure why? You can ask of course and you may or may not get a good answer.
I often wonder if korean teachers get pay slips every month. Anyone know? Also how much do they get paid?

Adam

they don't, but they can ask for it.

how much do KTs get paid? a lot (not ENTIRELY of course) depends on how long they've been teaching. generally speaking, we get paid more than they do, especially factoring in our housing allowance. yes, i do know that KTs get bonuses during the year, but even after those, we still generally end up getting more.

for instance, i started off with a salary of 2.2 mil (Daejeon + TEFL + taught at two schools), which is the same salary of a KT with OVER 5 years of experience. if you take into account the housing allowance (approximately 400,000W), i was getting 2.6 mil, a stipend which would take roughly 10 years for a KT to attain.

This is incorrect. Being a teacher in Korea is quite a prestigious position. They are well compensated. But, there are KT's who are hired on contract to teach English just like we are. We have one of these KTs and her salary is 1.8 million. As for my other co-workers, who are not yearly contracted instrustors, all make more than I do and I'm at Level 1 with EPIK.

i suppose it depends which city you work?

that's odd--i know in daejeon definitely new teachers don't make more than us, and the epik coordinator told me that my salary of 2.2 mil is = KT with 5 years experience in my city.

i'm also friends with various KTs and actually dated a KT and they all told me the same thing--it would take several years for KTs' base salary to reach that of EPIK level 1.

i also make more than both of my co-teachers (who have been teaching for about 4-5 years) and, of course, they don't understand why. LOL.

also remember to factor in the housing allowance, which essentially bumps up the pay by almost 400,000W.

you're right, though--being a teacher is a prestigious occupation in Korea, but not really due to salary. according to the KTs i know, a lot of people envy teachers mainly for the relatively long vacation time they have; their relatively short hours (a lot of white-collar jobs here are at least 10 hours); and of course its stability.