Minimum wage is too high! It will destroy the struggling ESL industry here

It's not as though money suddenly appears in your bank account or you start getting phone calls offering you amazing jobs. All it does is free you up to have the ability to make more money. How you choose to use that freedom is on you. It can be a real grind.

I know more than a few F6s who work one job pulling in 2.5ish and are content doing so.

The wife's probably not content with the man making so little.

Wow lots of arguing about how to make 3-4m working 60 hours a week while inhaling 2.5pm in copious amounts and being on crowded trains smelling korean grandpas kimchi, soju, onion, garlic, ciggy medley breath. 

3.5 is  $3,000... 36K USD a year.  What is the average salary of a person with a bachelor's degree?
The average person with a bachelor's degree makes a median income of $70,200/year or $1,350.00/week.
https://www.creditdonkey.com/average-us-salary.html

All of us have degrees do we not? Why are we arguing how to make 50% of what the average person in the USA makes.  Are we that much of social rejects that can't compete to make at least 50K?

yeah yeah, insurance, taxes,  housing.. bla bla.   Live in a state with no income tax.  take care of your health, live a minimalist lifestyle.  Anything is better than living on the fringes of Korean society making a below average salary with zero respect.  The good times are over here and you gotta accept it.

do a year and gtfo young guns, I'm warning you.

Wow lots of arguing about how to make 3-4m working 60 hours a week while inhaling 2.5pm in copious amounts and being on crowded trains smelling korean grandpas kimchi, soju, onion, garlic, ciggy medley breath. 

3.5 is  $3,000... 36K USD a year.  What is the average salary of a person with a bachelor's degree?
The average person with a bachelor's degree makes a median income of $70,200/year or $1,350.00/week.
https://www.creditdonkey.com/average-us-salary.html

All of us have degrees do we not? Why are we arguing how to make 50% of what the average person in the USA makes.  Are we that much of social rejects that can't compete to make at least 50K?

yeah yeah, insurance, taxes,  housing.. bla bla.   Live in a state with no income tax.  take care of your health, live a minimalist lifestyle.  Anything is better than living on the fringes of Korean society making a below average salary with zero respect.  The good times are over here and you gotta accept it.

do a year and gtfo young guns, I'm warning you.

Not everyone is from the US..

Not everyone is from the US..

it's okay. even for those of us from the US, that post is pretty irrelevant

I really hope you guys are right about f6 visa making more money m. I'm in the processing of transferring now.

https://seoul.craigslist.org/edu/d/after-school-in-masan-15pm-mf-20-mil/7038174626.html

I really hope you guys are right about f6 visa making more money m. I'm in the processing of transferring now.

https://seoul.craigslist.org/edu/d/after-school-in-masan-15pm-mf-20-mil/7038174626.html

I seen that already. I have an after school gig lined up. It's 3 million but no housing, pension, insurance, severance. The hours are about the same as that gig though. I'm going to try to work at after school company and then supplement that with part time work at a hagwon and or do privates on the side. If I can clear 4 million a month without running myself ragged I'd be pretty happy. I definitely won't be living in luxury, but between that and my wife's job we should be moderately comfortable.

3m is ok for after school. be careful, as your schedule will likely change in the summer/winter and you'll be working in the morning, instead of the afternoon. that's the most annoying thing about after school programs as it ruins your other part time jobs

3m is ok for after school. be careful, as your schedule will likely change in the summer/winter and you'll be working in the morning, instead of the afternoon. that's the most annoying thing about after school programs as it ruins your other part time jobs

Good point. I have also considered this as well. Ideally those other part time jobs will just be temporary anyways. I also can't pass up the chance to start working at a hagwon, do a really good job, and then just leave. It's kind of my fantasy.

Alberta for example has a $15 minimum which works out to about 2.35million won a month for a 40 hour week.

In northern Alberta no one will work for under $18 dollars and rent is cheap as the economy failed. You can literally rent a hotel room for 400-500 a month which includes all utilities.

There might be a correlation there...

As has been demonstrated on this site by others, ESL now broadly pays the same as, and in some cases lower than manual labour jobs in factories, farms, construction sites etc. Yeah, you get to sit at a desk for hours but that factory worker stuffing chicken into boxes takes home the same pay as you or more...without that expensive degree you had to pay for as a requirement to get here.

True. Go home and work on an oil platform or in a coal mine or on a fishing trawler and you might make more as well. Or even here. You also might lose a finger, go missing at sea (and these days that doesn't even get you a shanty to be remembered with) or come down with the black lung.

There's also the fact that your entire industry can get shut down the next time some regulations or hazards pop up. Avian flu outbreak? Half of you are getting sent home and will have no job for the season.

I might have missed this at some point in this thread or another so apologies...how is an after school program job paying 3 million?  Do you mean you have your regular day job plus after school for a total of 3 million?  Or is this just 3 million without housing?

I might have missed this at some point in this thread or another so apologies...how is an after school program job paying 3 million?  Do you mean you have your regular day job plus after school for a total of 3 million?  Or is this just 3 million without housing?

3 million is pretty standard for afterschool gigs. But keep in mind that is with no benefits at all. No housing, no insurance, no severance or pension. It basically amounts to someone making 2.2 or 2.3 with housing included. 

Oh and I'm not sure I buy the narrative that higher minimum wages make the cost of living go up. I have heard this argument from Republicans and conservatives my whole life and I don't buy it. Wages are significantly less than the value that workers are producing yet the cost of living is continuing to rise. I have seen rednecks in the south get in arguments because they are making 12 bucks an hour for back-breaking work but they are angry that another worker that is economically beneath them wants a higher bump in pay.  They aren't savy enough to direct their anger at the top and to point the finger at the people profiting from their labor. It's just much easier to crap on someone beneath.

The wife's probably not content with the man making so little.

If the wife has a decent job and the MIL can help out taking care of the children (or if they aren't planning to have babies) then it's pretty okay. My friend makes under 3 million/month on an F-6 visa. He is not a teacher though but that's irrelevant. His wife has a great job making 100million+ a year including the year-end bonus. She even told him to quit his job and study Korean or whatever he wants.
I know it's not a common situation but if the wife also makes 2-3 million won, then it could work. And making that much is far from impossible.

Universally across cultures women want men who earn more than they do. No matter how much they are pulling in.  Wealthy Beyonce married even wealthier Jay Z.

The only exception would be if the man is significantly better looking than the woman. 

But would you want to marry someone significantly worse looking than you?

Fact of the matter is most decent looking women won't accept a guy earning less than they do.

They'll be disgusted and think it is pathetic. And leave.

That's the way the world works.

Oh and I'm not sure I buy the narrative that higher minimum wages make the cost of living go up.

It's the other way around. The increased cost of living is driving the increase in minimum wage.

But ESL wages however...

Oh and I'm not sure I buy the narrative that higher minimum wages make the cost of living go up.

It's the other way around. The increased cost of living is driving the increase in minimum wage.

But ESL wages however...

In the US, however...

That chart is  a perfect example of why I don't believe conservatives when they claim that higher minimum wage makes the cost of living go up. If that were the case then the reverse would need to be true. When cost of living and productivity goes up the minimum wage should have followed if there was a strong correlation. But corporations are bleeding everyone dry while wages have flatlined. The cost of living has already risen dramatically despite minimum wage not being all that high in the U.S. ( When I say it's not all that high I mean when you factor in inflation and productivity as  well as compare those numbers to the amount that other essential things such as real estate has risen in the past decade ) . If higher minimum wage increases the cost of living then why hasn't a low minimum wage suppressed the cost of living.

I'm trying to get my fellow ex-pats to see the flaws in capitalism, but I can read some of the replies and I'm guessing that there are a few of you that will want to dig your heals in despite the fact that there is a complete financial meltdown every 10 years and everyone just shrugs it off as normal.

I might have missed this at some point in this thread or another so apologies...how is an after school program job paying 3 million?  Do you mean you have your regular day job plus after school for a total of 3 million?  Or is this just 3 million without housing?

3m without housing, but usually without other benefits too. however, you're only working for about 3-4 hours a day, leaving a lot of time to do other part time jobs too. after school jobs are a bit of a shit show though, so you've often got to put up with a lot of bullshit

I might have missed this at some point in this thread or another so apologies...how is an after school program job paying 3 million?  Do you mean you have your regular day job plus after school for a total of 3 million?  Or is this just 3 million without housing?

3m without housing, but usually without other benefits too. however, you're only working for about 3-4 hours a day, leaving a lot of time to do other part time jobs too. after school jobs are a bit of a shit show though, so you've often got to put up with a lot of bullshit

what kind of bullshit are you referring to?