It's actually lower.

2.3M @ 875won/1$CDN = $2,628 or $31,542

We can add a month's bonus to round it up to $34,170 (before taxes).

I do not consider the airfare, nor the housing a benefit.  The airfare is an unavoidable expense and the housing quality rapidly depreciates in value.

We then need to consider our deductions.  The tax rate is NOT 3 or 3.3% as many here are led to believe.  You can get an idea of the tax summaries here: 

https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/republic-of-korea/individual/taxes-on-personal-income

There are both local and federal taxes that must be paid.  Pension, and medical as well.  However the marginal tax rate most of you will fall into is 15%.  Add an additional 1.5% for your local tax rate, pension (approx 4.5%), and medical (nearly 5%) and you will find your actual after-tax income is around 74% or $25, 285 AFTER taxes (unless your employer was understating your income to save for his contributions and taxes which is extremely common).

Leaving you (with your annual bonus) of $2107/mo after taxes which is very very very low.  Keep in mind this is with an extremely favourable exchange rate.  If the rate goes above 1000, you can see your return shrink significantly.  Factor in your food, drinking habits, smokes, gas, TV, internet, phone and 'entertainment' and travel that you must have the actual savings shrinks very quickly to nothing.

You cannot live on rameon or other garbage food for a year to save a few thousand dollars.  The wage is just barely liveable, but you are utterly dependent on your employer to have the basic necessities.  It is not a tenable salary which leaves you fixated as the working poor.

https://www.settler.ca/english/lico-2020-canada/

How can you live on 2.1mil even after taxes it’s like 70,000 won a day.

Food in Korea costs at least 15,000 won a day, cellphone bills, power, gas, entertainment etc. and your up to 50-60,000 won a day.

So you can save what 10-20,000 won a day? That’s peanuts and what if you have a significant other?

At some point Korea won’t even be feasible financially with a job.

"Preaching to the choir"

Please cc: this post to the MOEL

A current teacher's first year salary in the UK is 2.6 million after tax. When you factor in the apartment, flight ticket, severance etc. There isn't much difference. Plus that UK teacher had to  spend an extra year doing a PGCE.

    Actually, Korean daycare is pretty affordable. If one of the parents is Korean, the government ones are 100% free.
    Even if both parents are not Korean, daycare comes out to around 450,000 a month (for a public daycare, that is. Private ones can be a lot more expensive).

And chances are, if you have a child in Korea, you aren't FOB and are probably making a lot more than 2.1 or whatever.
Raising a child in Korea is actually significantly cheaper than in many other developed countries, what with all the tax breaks, incentives, and subsidized services geared towards making people want to have kids here.

Gotta hold off that looming demographic crisis somehow, right? 

Yours has uniforms? Fancy fancy!
But yeah, I guess I should rephrase and say that *basic charges* are 100% subsidized.
Our little gremlin, being only a year and a half old, hasn't yet reached the point where field trip fees and such start to apply.

But like the standard care fees, I imagine they're tax deductible.
I did my taxes recently and was pretty happy about how daycare reduced my taxes. This'll be the first year where I'm going to get a hefty amount back after the adjustment! 

There is a bit of room for advancement in EPIK: 2.7 at +1 payscale, plus (the legal) odds and ends that long term teachers usually manage to pick up. With all the extra bonuses that the EPIK contracts offer, it *does* offer a substantially higher savings potential than the typical teachers get during the first  year or two in Canada. I know this from personal experience.

    Of course, after a few years teaching, Canadian benefits start to rapidly increase. And the pension system is far better as well. Long term, there's really no comparison, financially speaking.

There is a bit of room for advancement in EPIK: 2.7 at +1 payscale, plus (the legal) odds and ends that long term teachers usually manage to pick up. With all the extra bonuses that the EPIK contracts offer, it *does* offer a substantially higher savings potential than the typical teachers get during the first  year or two in Canada. I know this from personal experience.

    Of course, after a few years teaching, Canadian benefits start to rapidly increase. And the pension system is far better as well. Long term, there's really no comparison, financially speaking.

You're right about this, but the average teacher will still take a few years to get up to that level and only some places pay that.  The places which go to 2.7 million plus still start at 2.1 million (though that lowest level they don't hire for now).  SMOE will start at 1.8 million at the lowest level (though like above, you won't actually be hired for that level).  SMOE is kind of confusing, but most top out at 2.3 or 2.4?  Some other cities top out at 2.5.  Also, that is the salary.  The places that top out at 2.7 often have you going to multiple schools and give more money for that.  Also, in that rural province, if you work in an actual rural area (gun), you will get another 100,000 won per month on top of that.  Most places, except for SMOE pay the renewal allowance of 2 million won.  SMOE pays the least and cut out bonuses because they think everyone wants to live there.  Might be true for many, but it still makes them mean-spirited pricks and more folks working for them should challenge it.   (Of course many wimps won't.) 

Also, some places may give extra overtime or extra teaching.  Of course your extra teaching and pay with it may depend on which person is in what position.  As soon as they rotate out to another, you may be dropped from it as the new person in charge brings in their own pets.  So, never budget with the extra money. 

Finally, lots of folks still don't want to live in rural nowhere's umpteen hours away from Seoul.  If you live there and commute to Seoul every weekend, then the extra money you make will get eaten up fast.  Also, you are still for your first 2 years making low pay for these rural positions.  Then modest before getting higher.  In SMOE and other METRO EPIK positions you will make low longer and with SMOE stay low to modest permanently. 

I personally was lured here when the rules of the game were different.  Some kid coming here in 2021 should know what they are getting themself into.  2.1 million was great pay 13 or 14 years ago.  It is not in 2021.  Heck I started off at 2 million my first year and was still sending oodles of cash home to pay off debts and loans.  Great exchange rate then and really cheap living cost.  Honestly, on my much higher salary now, I am probably able to get the same dollars in my bank account back home now as I did back then. 

Well, that didn't take long....

Again. You don't quite get it. Given the content of your posts on here, that's understandable. Who is defending the salaries?