If you haven't taught then you don't understand the dynamics of it all. Move along AlexKMG, nothing to see here. Move along.

So those aren't valid questions?

salary for teachers in kunming i have seen advertized is 3700 for a bad pay unit up to 22000 for a private enterprise bridge school. i was earning 6000 in a uni in my last city suzhou, but that came with free apartment, free water electrix, flight home, holidays, subsidsed meal and basic medical cover. 16hr week and not heavy demands, no evening classes or weekends.

check fine print too on contracts. my buddy worked one place. says 150 per hour but with added duties, parents meetings, evening study, course development, and 6 day week. also when you add up teaching hours, basic salary is not 150. monthly pay is 4 weeks hours, so 4x12 = 48 weeks in the year, so what happened to the other 4 weeks pay. so no real paid holiday as promised. they also say bonus of 1000 a month but base pay is miraculously 4 weeks hours pay less 1000. ta da! so like they take your bonus out of your pay and give it back later if you have been a good boy, and bonus often cut if you dont bend over. penn and teller couldnt do better than than. more smoke and mirrors than david copperfield. so in short 150 p hour that isnt, holiday pay that isnt, bonus that isnt. ffs he walked. that is what the chiseling bonus was for, to stop people walking out. that worked out well for them didnt it, not.

@Dazzer
Exactly!

teaching in china is an ever revolving vortex of bullsh*t.

it's lies,scams, ¥£$€, dog eat dog business.

i worked for 150rmb in beijing in 2002, some still advertising it on thebeijinger.com

is 150 a good number?...i dunno!

is it realistic without a reasonable amount of work and benefits? ....i don't think so.

is it ethical (for professional teachers and according to the expat catalogue)?.... nopey-nope.

is it good or bad?...good if you treat the people supposed to make your kids better people like crap. if it,'s just a work and shutup school, then it's great pay.
BUT...
if you care about education and want to keep teachers happy,it's terrible and unrealistic pay.

plus...
most my chinese friends make more money than i do. and they have something a teacher will never get in china. A CAREER or A LEADING POSITION....so what is that worth?

liuming put it in pretty good words in the previous posts.

I know local guys on 6000 but driving merc. laowai teachers don't get opportunity to supplement to same degree, cant demand hong boa. Dont get offered free apartment for services favour etc. cant embezzlement

Isn't it all about demand/offer? I had recently an offer 75kuai / h and like 2-3h per week. Its a business after all ( I mean to them ), so u can take it or leave it. If nobody will take it, then they change the offer. Its natural that as a businessman u want to keep your cost at the lowest level. Then its up to the individual experience to distinguish where is 'low cost' and where is 'cheap and bad quality' ...in this case non experienced teacher. As more and more foreigners are coming to KM, naturally price for any foreign job is dropping down. Same time costs of living here are going up, so parents have less money to spend for an extra education for their kids. Also Eng.school are popping up here like mushrooms after the rain, so competition is high, therefore those who just invested lots of money into the classrooms ( premisses, equipment etc. ), want their investment back very quickly, before somebody opens the school across the road and take some of their biz. As I learned about China so far : If your biz doesnt make money after 2y, then close it. Coz you either doing it bad or you didnt make in time, cometition took your customers already. So I guess no need to be angry about low offers for work. If you feel that your job is paid shit, then leave . Change the job or country. If you are bounded here already, then look for the solution. No point to cry on GoKM, nobody will help here.

I think it's probably market rate. I think hourly pay generally hasn't risen much over the past 15 years.

The competition in terms of schools has risen but so has the amount of foreign teachers. You can complain about it but in most of the positions I guess the school just need a foreign teacher, with no consideration to experience or nationality, a teacher is a teacher.

Now, unless you're qualified as an examiner or some sort of specialist language field that the school require then it's going to be difficult to get higher than the market rates. If you don't work for 150 then someone else will.

Is 150 a reasonable amount? I think so. It's around 20 Euros/ 15 Pounds. That's pretty good overtime pay in Europe. Would you pay that for a tutor back home, probably yes.

The solution is going to Hong Kong/ Beijing/ Tianjin and getting 300 an hour but then it's swings and roundabouts, what you make on the pay you loose when you pay more for rent/food/transport.

ESL in China isnt going to lead you to retirement. English for oil and gas, that's where you need to be if you want a Ferrari when you're 30, but you'll be driving it in Yemen, not Kunming.

Get a good contract with an international school, then you needn't worry about part time rates and can enjoy your weekends and evenings.

my buddy was at int school. some place even want math teachers for 150