Teaching Salaries In Thailand

[lost_in_isaan]

I thought this was interesting:

ajarnjobspace.com/salary_guide.php

Seems like the average, advertised, teaching salary is still around 30,000 baht. In my time here teaching salaries seem to have gone nowhere. Maybe the government could flag the ridiculous tablet scheme and invest in the teaching stock more.

Edited October 3, 2011 by Scott
Direct link edited out/Scott

[Scott]

The direct link has been edited. We don't allow a direct link to commercial sites. The address is still available in the post, however.

[Ijustwannateach]

What happens is that eventually only those desperate for visas will accept such jobs (largely people who are already retired or near retirement). Sometimes that works. Other ways schools make do with paying such salaries is to hire more Burmese, Filipinos, Indians, etc.- sometimes the parents accept this, but ultimately they are less happy.

If relatively well-qualified native-speaking teachers in their career primes are to be employed in Thailand, Thailand will have to cough up relatively competitive wages compared to other countries which employ such teachers. That's the reality. Unfortunately, economic realities take a long time to hit home here sometimes. Schools will also gamble on those who are desperate for work or visa at any pay, which often includes the too-young, too-crazy, and too-criminal. This leads to high turnover, of course, and isn't really good for the kids' education.

I worked for one place here early on that paid me that kind of wage. They were happy with me at the end of the year and clearly the program was in profit. I was even told that I had been the only teacher who'd ever stayed a whole class year. Then they decided not to pay me for the school holiday and offered me a lower salary for returning the next year. Last I heard, they had decided to go with an agency that was supplying them quite literally with backpackers, and they rarely saw the same 'teacher' more than a week at a time.

Of course, hiring through an agency means you can get more kickback....

[aussiebebe]

Don't forget how misleading averages can be; if Bill Gates came to a 10-teacher staff meeting in a school in Thailand, then the 'average' net worth of someone in that room would be in the billions, it wouldn't matter that one teacher earnt 20,000baht per month or another was $500,000 in debt. The same principle applies in Thailand, there are just so many low-paying jobs which skew the average. To further confuse things, universities pay a low basic salary (for low contact hours) and then lecturers work extra to boost income at a high hourly rate.

However, it's true that salaries have gone nowhere in the past decade. The British Council and Go International (who advertise on ajarn from time to time) both advertise 700baht per hour, yet this is unchanged from a decade ago. I imagine that back then, way before I came to Thailand, teachers could have happily lived off just a few days work per week, yet now not, when you look at the rate of inflation. And they are still the best; you see ECC, Wall Street, AUA and Inlingua paying much lower.

[SlyAnimal]

I think that the salaries which are advertised are simply low, because most of the good jobs aren't advertised.

I know for me, when I was first looking around online last year, the salaries in Isaan were generally in the 25-30k range, with the best being 30k + living allowance or house.

However, via an advertisement on Thaivisa.com I was offered 35k + free house, however after I took that job, I've heard about numerous jobs for "salary same same you", from some of the school teachers / directors / farang I know. I think that in general, a lot of the best jobs aren't advertised at the job sites online, instead they use word of mouth to recruit experienced teachers who are already living in Thailand.

As for the average salary not increasing.... that's to be expected.

It's all supply and demand.... previously there were very few farang teachers in Thailand, thus the demand was higher and so the salary was proportionate to this higher demand. However now, there are more farang teachers, thus more supply to meet the demand, therefore salaries don't have to be as high as previously in comparison to the living cost (And since the cost of living has risen due to inflation, the salaries have simply stayed roughly the same). Likewise the THB is a lot stronger now than it was 5 or 10 years ago, so the salary in Thailand is probably closer to what it was to a farangland salary 5-10 years ago anyway, thus just as viable for luring farang over to Thailand.

That's my 2c anywho :-P