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.
Hi I am again!!! To correct my last comment stated that the pay rise of government office working person is 4-6 % I mean for every 6 month a time so if one year it will be 8-12 % depending on the performance.
Also income earned in Thai government agencies depends on what kind of job they do. For example if they are lawyer chemist doctor engineer or some risky job they will get more allowance than for general jobs.
The figures that I mentioned are appoximate and may not be exact amount but getting close. These figues are based on the current government salary system.
For those who do not work for government they will get depending on the company they work for. But the lowest labor income that the government anouncement is about 230 bath a day.
You may think that the rate of income in Thiland is very different between the working class and the office working person as Thailand standard of living is based on agricultural so working class may grow thier own foods or thier relatives are farmers so they can survive very well with thier income.
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 .
By dokrak, Thailand on 2010-07-05