TEFL Jobs China

What you Need to Know
about Teaching English in China

Wages and Benefits for English Teaching Jobs in China

China is a developing country and living costs are much cheaper than in USA, Canada or other developed countries.  The average salary for the local population is around 1500-2500 Yuan (depending on the location).

That amount is not enough for Westerners to survive however, because cheapest rent ranges from 400 Yuan (if you share your room with somebody) to 1500-2500 Yuan (if you rent one bedroom apartment yourself). But many Chinese manage to live a fairly good life earning this money. It is one reason why young people live with their parents most of their life.

Wages for teaching English are much higher than the salary of an average Chinese, that’s why Chinese people think that all the foreigners living in China are very rich. Sometimes it even affects friendship between foreigners and the local population.

Salary rates for teaching English will depend on many different factors, such as a teacher’s qualifications and experience, the place where you work, public kindergarten, schools. colleges and universities or private institutions. Usually private institutions pay less than public, but also it depends on the size of the organization. A private university with 1000 students studying there might find you earning quite good money for only 15 hours of teaching a week. That's a pretty good offer!

For a native speaker without experience the starting salaries can range from 4500 Yuan to 8000 Yuan (with housing, visa, air reimbursement and other bonuses). 

 For those teachers who hold BA/MA/PhD or TEFL/TESOL and have a few years of teaching experience, preferably in China, the salary might be 50-100% more or even higher.  But higher salaries you are more likely to get taxed, that is the employer will deduct a certain amount of money from your salary every month. The higher the salary; the higher the amount of taxes.

More and more recruitment agencies are appearing on the market. They can play many different roles.  Some just introduce teachers to schools or institutions and then you deal with the school directly. But most education institutions are so busy, especially in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, etc., that they prefer to find a recruitment agency that will provide total care of foreign teachers. That means these agencies sign the contract with the institution and after that they are responsible for hiring foreign teachers, for the housing for teachers, for their visa and so on.

Recently there has been more competition among employers. The Chinese population is huge and hungry for the English language training. With each passing year the scope of private kindergartens, schools, colleges and universities has increased so much that the employers (i.e. teaching institutions) have to compete among themselves, trying to make their offers as attractive as possible.

As for the benefits you can get for teaching English, they are as following:

1.    Health insurance: (you will get it only if you are employed by a public institution or a huge private school or center) usually it is supposed to cover basic medical and dental needs. Chinese medicine is very cheap, so the amount of health insurance will correspond to expenses for medical attention and prescriptions.

2.    Holidays: there are 16 national holidays in China, excluding spring festival (Chinese New Year). For spring festival holidays different institutions have different schedules, but the minimum days off should be 7 days, in colleges or universities you might have up to a month off. All the national holidays should be paid by the employer.

3.    Vacations: depending on the employer you may have 7-14 days for your vacation per year. But private schools are more unlike to offer you such benefit. They will ask you to take your vacation during spring festival or on other long national holidays, as they don’t have summer or winter holidays at all.   Universities and Colleges will likely offer longer holidays than private schools.

4.    Sick leave: you can count on a few days of sick leave per year, if you work at a public institution. But if it’s a private center, they usually don’t pay for missed days/classes. If you take a sick leave for more than 15 days, the employer has the right to terminate the contract without your agreement.

5.  Transportation cost: many employers will cover the costs of transportation to China by reimbursing the teachers upon arrival in China and from China back to their home country at the end of the contract. Don’t forget to ask about it before signing the contract with your employer.

6.   Housing: when hiring a foreign teacher, all Chinese institutions are responsible for housing. This can be in an apartment, a furnished dormitory or small, single rooms. Single rooms are usually rudimentarily furnished, heated and air-conditioned (depending on location) with a private bathroom. They are usually in a foreign housing complex on the campus or close to school for teacher’s convenience.

7.   Visa: as it was already mentioned, you need to be careful with agencies and schools, for many of them don’t know how to deal with working visa. It would be better if you have at least a three month visa when you come to China (if you do not obtain the correct visa before arriving - as a one month might be not enough for getting your working visa done before your current visa expires. It’s a serious issue that you should keep in mind, as you will have to leave China and get a new visa then come back again - if your visa is about to expire. It is better to contact people who worked at the institution before or used the services of the agency, and make sure if those people did not have any troubles with visas. Before and after Olympics visa rules became stricter than before, so one should pay attention to any changes.

8.    Bonuses: many institutions (depends on the employer) pay a bonus to attract more foreigners. It’s an extra amount of money that will be added to your monthly salary or the amount for the whole year when you finish your contract. This bonus is roughly equivalent to severance pay.

9.   Taxes: in most cases teachers are taxed directly and the employer covers all the taxes. But in some institutions, especially if you earn a high salary around 15000-18000 Yuan a month, you may have to pay your own taxes. Discuss this issue with your employer before signing the contract.