What's the lowest salary for an E2?

Brilliant idea, hangook!
Seriously, how come no one ever thought about uploading videos to YouTube, sharing their experiences living and working in Korea? If I made one, I could be the very first person doing so. This is an exciting new opportunity!

Nice try, but I been on vacation for February.  (Hidden isn't me.)  Except for dropping a couple of posts about the truckers, I ain't been near this site until today. 

TaLK was 1.5mil for 15 working hours per week.

Absolutely no official deskwarming whatsoever (unless you had no backbone and your school was run by a sociopath)

Lol I did 1 year with TaLK and my head teacher tried to get me to stay the full work day (I had days where I finished work at 11:30/12:00 and would dip IMMEDIATELY). He asked me to wait until lunchtime, at least, was over before going home. I noped the f- outta that conversation so fast. What annoyed me too was the fact that I'm a vegetarian, so I wasn't even having the school lunches

Nah, way too many opportunities for liberties to be taken.
Free English tutor for the kids/parents/extended family etc for example, not to mention the 400k stipend would go to the family.
When I first did TaLK we were given the option of home stay or our own places…if home stay was mandatory, I most probably wouldn’t have joined the program.

You're probably right.
Growing up, my family hosted an exchange student nearly every year, which was always super awesome for me. I guess that, because of that, I might be seeing exchange programmes through rose tinted glasses.

Yeah, I've actually heard a few horror stories about that. One story in particular stood out to me because it was the NET's coteacher or VP or something who basically coerced the NET into a homestay with his family so that he could pocket the stipend. Ended up being hell for the NET because the coT or VP basically tried to micromanage her life and force her to tutor other people's kids outside of school. She managed to get out of it, but as you can imagine it was a huge mess and it really soured her to Korea for a while.

Did the TaLK scholars ever have a choice as to whether or not they could receive the 400,000 housing allowance?
I believe that they were being housed at homestays with Korean families at first (maybe back in 2008, when I first heard of this program at a university fair back home).

Then from 2010 or 2012 they started to allow the scholars a choice between homestay or a one room apartment that the program chooses for them. Also, since they are mostly housed in rural areas, their housing probably didn’t cost as much as 400,000.

They did do only 3 hours of work per day though with no desk warming with health care / taxes not taken out at first since the pay was just considered a flat out stipend/ scholarship  and not a salary.

If they could indeed request that 400,000 housing allowance, then that does make the come out on top salary wise with 30,000!!!

Maybe that’s why the program got scrapped? They did the calculations and realized it didn’t make sense to pay someone with lower qualifications more than a full time EpIK teacher per hour, but there was no way to scale down benefits and salary as that would make it impossible to survive on in Korea.

I know student scholarships for international grad students are like 800,000 a month flat. But they are starving at the end of the month and need to work a part time job or two to make ends meet.

Prior to the Great Recession beginning in 2009, most EPIK folks got to work mornings and bailed after lunch.  You'd get the odd strict school and the odd day where your classes were scheduled through the day or you'd get that one day where a school was far far away.  But much of the week, you could get home real early like that and low to mid 2's salary was good pay back then.  This was more prevalent in rural EPIK but some places in Gyeonggi did do some of this and even Gwangju Metro City in Jeollanam Do use to give their teachers the whole winter vacation off.  Some public schools in China, Vietnam will give you super long vacations and some have no desk warming the way Korea use to be.  (Though pay is often reduced for summers there though.)  But after the recession began most cities and closer to Seoul got hard core while some rural areas did hold out until recently and still allow some slackness.  But it was like TALK in some ways as you often didn't do your 22 hours either.  More like 16 or 17 a week. 

Lol I did 1 year with TaLK and my head teacher tried to get me to stay the full work day (I had days where I finished work at 11:30/12:00 and would dip IMMEDIATELY). He asked me to wait until lunchtime, at least, was over before going home. I noped the f- outta that conversation so fast. What annoyed me too was the fact that I'm a vegetarian, so I wasn't even having the school lunches

That’s how it should be done. Nopety nope with hearts and cherries on top. That, or my favourite response - “will I be paid overtime for that?”

On contractual issues like this, your school can’t force you to stay beyond what the contract says…if they try, the local education office and regional TaLK coordinator could be reliably called upon to intervene on your behalf.

Prior to the Great Recession beginning in 2009, most EPIK folks got to work mornings and bailed after lunch.  You'd get the odd strict school and the odd day where your classes were scheduled through the day or you'd get that one day where a school was far far away.  But much of the week, you could get home real early like that and low to mid 2's salary was good pay back then.  This was more prevalent in rural EPIK but some places in Gyeonggi did do some of this and even Gwangju Metro City in Jeollanam Do use to give their teachers the whole winter vacation off.  Some public schools in China, Vietnam will give you super long vacations and some have no desk warming the way Korea use to be.  (Though pay is often reduced for summers there though.)  But after the recession began most cities and closer to Seoul got hard core while some rural areas did hold out until recently and still allow some slackness.  But it was like TALK in some ways as you often didn't do your 22 hours either.  More like 16 or 17 a week. 

I think that those who had an opportunity to come here in  2010 or earlier were just really lucky with getting to work under a still-developing country style management in Korea, where foreigners were let off the hook easily and seen as elite guests instead of contract workers. It was just a really beneficial time to be here.

Also, there were so few EPIK teachers here that I'm sure the offices of education were trying to do what they could to make their foreign teachers happy in order to encourage them to renew their contracts.
(I'm pretty sure this was also the time when EPIK even recruited non-native English speaking teachers from Quebec, where the majority of the population speaks French as their native language, and allowed them to renew despite their English being on par with or worse than the Korean English teachers' English ability.)  This is shows the desperation and need for foreign teachers at that time, as I have taught these "French Speaking Canadians," English in my ESL class back when I taught adult ESL in Canada.)
Regarldess or who it was and how well they performed, things  were in the foreign teachers' favour back than. Hence the free lunches, less classes, and permission to leave after lunch.
If some other East Asian country were to become more popular at distributing it's culture through dramas and music like Japan and Korea and ends up luring away all of the potential English teachers,  then maybe things would get better again in terms of benefits here.

In March 2006 the flood gates opened under Rho Mu-hyun's plan to put native English teachers into every urban and rural school.

I was happily expecting to sign on for a 4th year on beautiful Geoje Island (east coast, in Okpo), but I saw a 2.5 (or was it 2.6 - don't care/didn't care so much at the salary minutae, for a Monday to Thursday 4pm to 7:50pm M to Thursday job in Hadong. I checked it out by visiting, loved the small town chill vibe, the hilltop park, the Seomjin River park (tennis and basketball and swimming). WHY THE HECK WAS THIS SWEET POSITION with every Friday off? Because it was one of only two competing hagwons with a foreign teacher in a farming town having a hard time atteacting foreigners away from traffic jams and urban sprawl. AND - the kicker - the public schools (every elementary, middle and high school in Hadong) suddenly wanted foreign teachers, so recruiters (as my recruiter told me bluntly) needed to convince rural hagwons who wanted native English teachers to sweeten the pot. Shortly after I was hired, I was suddenly asked to add Fridays (not in my contract) and one phone call to my recruiter and that was nixed. That hagwon re-signed me in '07 and '08, and I only left after that because of a death in the family. The 2006-2009 period of English Language Teaching in this country had plenty of sweet offers (i regularly looked at but never bit at others as my gig was great - not just for Fridays off but for being THE highest level hagwon in a small town because it always had a waygook: I taught some classes twice or thrice a week, they won speech contests, got 720 TOEIC score in elementary school, went to North Carolina on scholarship.

But there has been 1.7 mill with housing in 2021. My friend took 1.6 mill for 30 hours m-f in 2018 (dunno what he was thinking - hadn't the heart to ask).

The least I've heard is 1.4 mill for 5 days a week with no housing, morning and afternoons.... i stunned... was speechless.

Korando story or GTFO!

In March 2006 the flood gates opened under Rho Mu-hyun's plan to put native English teachers into every urban and rural school.

The least I've heard is 1.4 mill for 5 days a week with no housing, morning and afternoons.... i stunned... was speechless.

1.4 for 5 days.... This must have been an ad for an international English-speaking student or non-native English speaker from the Philippines / India??
For a Native English speaker, this is just disrespectful to try and pay them 1997 wages almost 30 years later :<
If Native English Teachers were being offered 2.6 back then, they should be offered between 3.6 ~ 4.0 now.
The recruiters spreading their propaganda of getting rich in Korea doesn't help the situation either. 

Like I mentioned before, the problem with ESL in Korea is that it is so short term and incoming teachers are not aware of their salaries and conditions and what things were like until they come here and start to network and learn more about this country from previous NETs.
Already there are teachers in the 2019~ 2022 Kakao groups that are realizing more and more that the pay isn't that great.
However, for some fresh college graduates who were recently living in a college dorm or sharing a house with multiple roommates, a one room with a private kitchen and bathroom with the potential to save a few hundred dollars a month, while partying, traveling, and adventuring around a new country still seems like quite the good deal. They're unaware that they should be earning at least 1.0 mill more for their work. Once they figure out that this isn't so great, they've already put in a year or two years' worth of work into the Hakwon... then they leave and a new one gets tricked into coming in.

I understand EPIK might not be in a position to raise salaries excessively, since it's the government, and while it's nice for students to have a class with a foreign teacher, the education impact is not as strong as the cross-cultural communication and globalization aspect of the program. With EPIK teachers we're mostly there to get the kids interacting with a foreigner, learning some cross-cultural stuff, and basically just giving them an enjoyable experience through communicative English activities. However, the Hagwons, this is where the students really receive a valuable education! Like VanIslander said, students win competition and scholarships to US schools... all thanks to the skills they obtain from their Hakwon classes. Parents send the kids to these Hakwons so they can have better opportunities and live more elite lives than their peers. The Hakwon teachers must be compensated more for their contribution to these students' future. The E-2 native teachers are really getting the worst... F-4 Kyopos teaching at Hakwons make double of E-2's ... up to 4.0 mill a month.

It is no longer the teachers, but the Hakwons that have found a sweet deal for themselves!
A never-ending supply of labor for their Hakwons, where they can charge the parents 2021 tuition prices, and pay the Native English Teachers 2000 salaries, all thanks to the K-pop and K-drama wave!!

Since the new president wants to do away with minimum wage and maximum working hours…my bet is on whatever KRW amounts to 700-1000USD per month for a 25-30hr teaching week in some hagwon somewhere. No housing or flights.

This will be for an official, legal E-2 position…and someone will be sponsored on that visa.

Timeline…sometime within the next 18-30 months.

The recruiters spreading their propaganda of getting rich in Korea doesn't help the situation either. 

Like I mentioned before, the problem with ESL in Korea is that it is so short term and incoming teachers are not aware of their salaries and conditions and what things were like until they come here and start to network and learn more about this country from previous NETs.
Already there are teachers in the 2019~ 2022 Kakao groups that are realizing more and more that the pay isn't that great.
... then they leave and a new one gets tricked into coming in.

FFS, it is 2022 if you haven't noticed yet.
It could've been true 20-30 years ago, pre-internet.
But in the last 10-15 years, one would need to be a special kind of moron if they are unaware of the ins and outs of the efl industry in Korea or anywhere else where they plan to live and teach. But they're supposed to be college grads. And they would most likely know about this wonderul thing called internet.
Your argument is mind blowingly stupid.

FFS, it is 2022 if you haven't noticed yet.
It could've been true 20-30 years ago, pre-internet.
But in the last 10-15 years, one would need to be a special kind of moron if they are unaware of the ins and outs of the efl industry in Korea or anywhere else where they plan to live and teach. But they're supposed to be college grads. And they would most likely know about this wonderul thing called internet.
Your argument is mind blowingly stupid.

Before coming over here I worked at an ESL and academic support center, where these college students could come in to get help with their assignments ect. Even with the internet around a lot of these students who were suppose to have some level of academic and critical thinking skills were mind blowing stupid …

That’s the thing, a lot of these people just set out on an adventure without properly researching beyond the k-pop concerts they’re going to attended and the exciting places they’re going to visit.

Really unfortunate of them to not take advantage of the internet!

Luckily, many are figuring out that this is not the place to strike it rich once they get here and either use their time to upgrade credentials and move up or save money for a year or two and get out. Of course this does nothing to change the salaries as the ever rotating door for newbies to take over the entry level teaching positions is always open.

Before coming over here I worked at an ESL and academic support center, where these college students could come in to get help with their assignments ect. Even with the internet around a lot of these students who were suppose to have some level of academic and critical thinking skills were mind blowing stupid …

That’s the thing, a lot of these people just set out on an adventure without properly researching beyond the k-pop concerts they’re going to attended and the exciting places they’re going to visit.

Really unfortunate of them to not take advantage of the internet!

Luckily, many are figuring out that this is not the place to strike it rich once they get here and either use their time to upgrade credentials and move up or save money for a year or two and get out. Of course this does nothing to change the salaries as the ever rotating door for newbies to take over the entry level teaching positions is always open.

So where does that put you?

Well, I actually only started to read through the forums regarding  ESL work-related issues in Korea after I arrived here 2 and a half years ago. My mistake in not doing more thorough research beforehand...
Things do seem really out of balance... Korea is not cheap as people use to say it was, ... subways are not W900, as my friends who had taught here in 2010 have mentioned, and Kimbap is no longer $ 1,000.

Anyways, your post(s) have hangook77 written all over them.

but were suppose to be on another and...

a topic that's suppose to be about Vietnam...

the foreign teacher is not suppose to be doing those.

in the meantime or I strike it rich. 

They have slightly different focal points in their repeating rhetoric, and Hidden shows a disdain to workers from non-Anglo countries in many posts that I haven't noticed hangook express. hangook is unintentionally way funnier as well. They both show similar grammar mistakes and patterns though, and rigid opinions. Both talk authoritatively while expressing wrong information.

I'm leaning towards them being different but very similar people. 

So where does that put you?

Anyways, your post(s) have hangook77 written all over them.

It ain't me.  I think the mods will confirm that.  But keep wearing that tin foil hat Alex Jones gave you.

FFS, it is 2022 if you haven't noticed yet.
It could've been true 20-30 years ago, pre-internet.
But in the last 10-15 years, one would need to be a special kind of moron if they are unaware of the ins and outs of the efl industry in Korea or anywhere else where they plan to live and teach. But they're supposed to be college grads. And they would most likely know about this wonderul thing called internet.
Your argument is mind blowingly stupid.

You are assuming some young people actually do this thing called "research?"  Though word is slowly getting out about the crappy pay to them....

They have slightly different focal points in their repeating rhetoric, and Hidden shows a disdain to workers from non-Anglo countries in many posts that I haven't noticed hangook express. hangook is unintentionally way funnier as well. They both show similar grammar mistakes and patterns though, and rigid opinions. Both talk authoritatively while expressing wrong information.

I'm leaning towards them being different but very similar people. 

After I pointed out that Hidden used hangook77's signature phrase ''use to'' at least 3 or 4 times, now he carefully edits his posts to make sure it's not there anymore.
But even without those, there are many signs. I'm certain it's hangook's sock.
A vpn would help him cover his trail from the mods. Not sure why he would use a sock. But at the same time he writes a whole bunch of things that makes one scratch their head. So it fits into his MO.

They have slightly different focal points in their repeating rhetoric, and Hidden shows a disdain to workers from non-Anglo countries in many posts that I haven't noticed hangook express. hangook is unintentionally way funnier as well. They both show similar grammar mistakes and patterns though, and rigid opinions. Both talk authoritatively while expressing wrong information.

I'm leaning towards them being different but very similar people. 

I have more of a problem with Korea's visa requirements and wages based on required skills and education, nothing personally against the actual migrant workers. The migrant workers are clever. They are just individuals taking advantage of a good opportunity that came about from their predecessors protesting low wages and inequality, and bringing their problems to the media. In fact, that is probably what got them the higher wages, they made their Korean companies "lose face," in front of media and they were "shamed" into improving the conditions in order to not "look bad".  After all Korea is all about that outward appearance and reputation.
Has anyone here ever heard of Yombie Tonna? If I remember his name correctly... the refugee from Congo who arrived in 2002... in one of the programs he openly talked about spreading awareness about the difficulties he faced in Korea as a refugee and was invited to appear on TV. In the interview, he mentioned trying to put down a deposit on an apartment to bring his family over and he was scammed by the Korean landlord/ owner... After the interview the president of Samsung called him, apologized on behalf of that man and offered to pay for this apartment... and Zombie said that it was because the president was ashamed about Korean stealing from a poor African man... it made the country lose face... he couldn't handle it.. Maybe if NETs decided to organize and bring their problems to the media things might change, who knows.

However, as the problem stands today, it just doesn't seem right to require  NETs to have to obtain a university degree which costs thousands of dollars per year and pays them less than a local bus driver or a migrant worker.
In that case, Korean University lecturer positions should be offered to those with Bachelor's Degrees, higher-paid positions/leadership positions for those with M.As, and tenure track for those with PHDs.
EPIK positions could be offered to those with college diplomas (you don't need a full B.A to be an assistant), and then there would be nothing to complain about as the level of expertise and education would justify the pay.
Even a high school graduate with only a high school diploma has most of the qualifications. They have the 21 years behind them that they spent growing up in the Western country as a native speaker with perfect Western pronunciation and intonation as their credential.

After I pointed out that Hidden used hangook77's signature phrase ''use to'' at least 3 or 4 times, now he carefully edits his posts to make sure it's not there anymore.
But even without those, there are many signs. I'm certain it's hangook's sock.
A vpn would help him cover his trail from the mods. Not sure why he would use a sock. But at the same time he writes a whole bunch of things that makes one scratch their head. So it fits into his MO.

Sorry to disappoint you again detective... I'm not Hangook....
Do you personally know Hangook? Have you met him/her in real life?
What do you want me to do ...face time you so you can see that I'm not him/her ???

Maybe the way we write to express our thoughts of unhappiness looks similar to you? I don't know....
Anyways I'm really over this...... I don't know what visa this Hangook person has but if it's an E-2 the future is bleak and complaints about low salaries declining/ depreciating are a valid concern affecting his/ her livelihood.


Maybe a better thing to ask here..
What are the job prospects/ salaries like for those who are on an F- series visa?
Is it possible to make 50,000 or more an hour doing temporary short-term substitute work for hagwons or universities?
Is it sustainable?
Also, with an F visa we are no longer tied down to doing only Engish teaching jobs, right?