Four times the salary of a local Thai?
What a load of bullshit!
posted on 30th October 2009
"You'll be earning four times the salary of a local Thai"
Nothing irks me more than reading that statement and you see it all over the web wherever the topic of teaching in Thailand is discussed or promoted. It's a statement that's both grossly misleading and wildly inaccurate. Let me tell you this. Local Thais who work for medium-sized Thai companies and foreign multinationals - even those who aren't the brightest bulb in the marquee - earn salaries that went way beyond those of your average English teacher a long, long time ago. I've always struggled to give an identity to this ‘local Thai' - this person who takes home a mere quarter of what an English teacher does. Is it a bus conductor? Is it a street-sweeper? Is it the bored-looking shop assistant in Robinsons? I really don't know. But one thing I do know - you would expect at the very least to earn four times what they do.
Such wild claims invariably forget two fundamental things. Firstly, the foreign teacher doesn't have the family support network that many average local Thais enjoy. How do you think a Thai earning 15,000 baht a month - and there are plenty of them - can drive around in a spanking brand new car? Perhaps they saved up five-baht coins in a glass jar? I don't think so. Secondly, foreigners can't ‘live' like a Thai. However romantic the notion of living in a boxy apartment and eating street-food three times a day may be, few foreigners can handle that sort of lifestyle for more than a few months.
I don't want to get into the argument of how much money a teacher needs to earn in order to survive or live comfortably in Thailand. Every person has different needs when it comes to standards of living. It's a discussion topic that's raged forever and a day. However, I feel it's important to realistically assess how far a salary of 30,000 baht will stretch (and let's assume 30,000 baht is the magical figure being touted as four times that of a local Thai)
Here goes. A salary of 30,000 baht will probably be closer to 29,000 baht after tax. I'm a little out of touch with the cost of basic apartments but accommodation is probably going to be your biggest expense. I would say 6,000 baht a month is the minimum you would need to pay in Bangkok for something decent. With utility bills and phone, this could easily top 8,000 baht a month all in. So that leaves you with 21,000 baht a month in your pocket. If you take the average month as being thirty days then that leaves you with the princely sum of 700 baht a day. And out of that 700 baht a day, you need to put food in your stomach and clothes on your back. Then of course there are the small matters of laundry, health insurance, transportation, weekends away on a tropical island (you did come here to see Thailand as well didn't you?) computers, toiletries and wouldn't it be nice to fly home to see the family every year or two.
I earned 35,000 baht a month teaching English as far back as 1994. Anyone earning that kind of salary in a private language school certainly had to put in the hours, but at least the hours were available for those who wanted them. When one was younger and had infinitely more energy, you didn't mind the punishing schedules if it meant a few extra treats at the end of each month and a generally better standard of living. You could well argue that salaries haven't risen for the Thailand-based foreign teacher in the last 10-15 years but what's more obvious (at least to me) is that nowadays there is far more to spend your money on. Everyone wants a nice PC or laptop complete with the latest software. And then there are the temptations of the high street - the Starbucks, the KFCs and the McCafes to name just a few - all vying with each other to separate you from the baht in your pocket. In the mid-90s they just weren't around. But why shouldn't you enjoy the luxury of nipping into Starbucks for an iced latte and an oatmeal muffin, despite it probably eating up a whopping 20% of your 700 baht daily ‘allowance'.
Of course not every teacher works in the salary-squeezing capital. There are plenty of chalkies out there plying their trade in Thailand's rural areas, where many teachers (and employers) claim that the cost of living is ‘much lower' or ‘far cheaper' than that in Bangkok. I've never subscribed to this point of view at all. Accommodation can be cheaper, I'll give you that one, but transportation, the cost of getting around town? - not necessarily. Order a whopper in Burger King and the price is the same. Stroll around a department store and you'll see that a quality pair of shoes is on a par with what you'd pay in Bangkok. Assuming they sell quality pairs of shoes in the first place.
Next time you see promotional blurb proclaiming that you'll be earning four times the salary of a local Thai, perhaps you might want the above ramblings to be your small print.
Tags: teaching in thailand teacher problems teacher recruitment teaching in asia teacher salaries teaching in bangkok cost of living in thailand
Comments
Daniel B, I mentioned about Thai government school who are formally civil servant who qualify to have range in government employing system I thing you may not understand the system. There are three kind of employment in Thai government system. 1st is the government official who have to passed the screening examination to get in to the system which may be about 1 Out of 1000 or 2000 applicants. This will have the certain intensive and good promotion career pass as I mentioned on my last comments which you may not understand. The 2nd is the permanent government employee which is very limited income the highest is about 16,000 B amounts before [now with the new Decree maybe 22,000 B]. The 3rd is the temporary employee which is only hire as temporary and renew contract every year. This kind of employee will not get pay rise at all the salary will stay the same. They may have to try to take exam to became the pertinent one or to be the official one to get the better opportunity.
For the mentioned rate of salary is the lastest rate that just has been adjusted to suit the present economy. The salary rate for government employment had been adjusted many times. The bachelor degree rate 20 years ago was only 2,700 a month. You can figure it out how much should someone earn now when they started to earn only 2,700 B for 20 years ago or maybe when your Thai friend start working she might be just employee not the formal official.
I hope you may understand more about the system and may not think my given information is not come from the trusted sources .
Quote .. Daniel B .. “Thai teachers get some other “perks” at my school like having to pay for any photocopies they need for students, marker pens they need, paper to print things (like their exams), and other “luxuries” for teaching.“
I’ve worked at a private school like that .. where ALL teachers were expected to pay for resources. I understand it’s a widespread practice in Thailand .. in many businesses.
I know a good business should try to reduce overheads .. but expecting employees to cover them is theft .. pure and simple. The directors/owners/managers should be put in stocks and pelted with rotten durians!
I have met many Thai teachers who are actually honest about their monthly pay (though many are not) and after 20 years, two of the people I know only make between 20-24k per month—though some (one of the two does) get a small stipend for housing as well. But that doesn’t take into account how many hours they have to put in to get that salary: 6 days a week, 10 or more hours a day M-F with a mere 8 or so on Saturday. That’s nearly 60 hours a week for about 65-80% of my salary which I only have to teach 22 hours a week to earn. Plus Thai teachers get some other “perks” at my school like having to pay for any photocopies they need for students, marker pens they need, paper to print things (like their exams), and other “luxuries” for teaching.
So I think if you put it into perspective and compared apples to apples by calculating an hourly wage it may be even higher than 4 times a Thai teacher. Let’s say that a Thai teacher only teaches 4 hours a day, plus has to assist you 3-4 hours a day M-F and teaches all the hours on Saturday, which would reduce their hours to about 48 hours per week (which is probably low in reality). Now I only teach 22 hours per week so already I work less than half the number of hours that the Thai teacher works—and this isn’t counting lesson prep time, marking papers, etc. for either. Now let’s say I make 30k (for ease after a mere 5 years) and the Thai teacher after 20 is making 24k per month. If you figure 4 weeks per month the Thai teacher works 192 hours and I work 88 hours per month. The Thai teacher’s salary works out to 125 baht per hour compared to my 340 baht per hour—so that may not be 4 times, but I haven’t been there 20 years either.
So if you use the government wage increase rates Dokrak posted of 4-6% wage increases each year, at 20 years I should be around 50k if I were to get the same pay raise that would put my hourly wage at 570 baht to the Thai teacher’s 125 baht per hour—a little closer to the 4 times figure now. I’m not saying that we as native teachers get those same pay raises each year, but I think that might be where they get those figures from. Similarly as Dokrak posted, a starting teacher makes 10.3k per month compared to the 22.5k that I started at. The Thai teacher hourly wage is 54 baht per hour compared to my starting salary of 256 baht per hour—nearly 5 times a Thai teacher salary.
I have worked in Thailand on and off for many years and in a variety of organisations, including commercial and international schools.
While, I don’t subscribe to this notion of an average Thai and what they earn, I have witnessed Thai’s earning 8,000 - 10,000 baht a month. This included staff, usually administrative, who worked at the schools where I was teaching at the time. And it was probably true 10 years ago that the average foreign English teacher earned more than their Thai equivalent.
What does surprise me is that wages for English teachers, especially in Bangkok, have stagnated. Judging by the job adverts on this website an English teacher can not expect to earn anymore working in Bangkok now than they did 10 years ago. And perhaps more surprisingly, foreign teachers can earn the same working up-country as their counterparts in Bangkok. Where as their Thai equivalent has benefited from regular wage increases, both those in Bangkok and those outside. This is particularly true for those teachers who are government employees. I would guess that there probably isn’t much of a gap between the salary of a foreign teacher and a Thai teacher now and in some cases the gap has gone the other way with Thai teachers now earning more than their foreign counterparts.
My concern is that if wages for English teachers remain low, the better qualified teachers will not come to Thailand and English language teaching standard will not improve.
I made the move out of Thailand several years ago, not because the conditions or the students are any better, they aren’t, but with a family to support the salaries in Thailand were woefully inadequate.
Comment on this Article
Most recently answered question:
is it illegal to work as a teacher on an ED visa ?
Terms of Use I Advertising I Contact Us
I don’t see the difference in a government contract worker and a foreign English teacher except, The government contract worker teaches 20 hours a week and many foreign English teachers (myself included) taught 25 hours a week and if gate duty and the English Club was added, it would be 27 hours a week for the same money. The government worker could take off at will for any excuse and the foreign English teacher had to bring in a doctors excuse. The government worker had their printing done free and the foreign teacher had to pay for his. All of the government workers supplies were free while the foreign teacher many times had to buy theirs, even books at times. Oh! Let’s not the free housing if it’s available, low interest loans, ect., ect.
I agree with the writer of the article, I.E. Foreign teachers make four times the pay of the Thai teacher is pure and simple “BULLSHIT”
By ralphlsasser, nong khai on 2010-07-23