Contracts and conversations about contracts

This classy photo may or may not be what a contract looks like. 

Contract. For being a small word, contract means a whole lot, so it's something to take very seriously. More seriously than a whole zoo full of multi-talented otters. Probably serious enough that you should consider consulting people on the internet, just to be on the safe side.

So contracts are important, but it's especially important to know what to look for, what should be on a contract, and what you should probably insist on having if it isn't listed on your contract. I'll go over these and give an idea of what is on our contract that was sent to us by way of the recruiter and school.

What does our contract look like? That's our contract pictured above, just a portion. The first page has a form to be completed with information from the school and teacher at the top, including the school location and things like the teacher's passport number, etc. In total it's 11 pages long, but this also includes the English and the Korean translation of the text. Then it ends with dates and signatures, pretty standard contract-y kind of stuff.

Back to the meat of the matter though. There are some crucial things that should be covered in your contract, which I will quickly highlight: 

- Visa Sponsorship. It may seem like a no brainer, but your employer is responsible for sponsoring you for your visa (E-2 visa for English teachers) as well as helping you obtain your alien registration card and setting you up with a Korean bank account.

- Housing. Contracts should definitely include this, your employer will typically pay the rent, while you pick up all utilities. Is your housing furnished? Some programs like EPIK and GEPIK do not provide furnished housing (my understanding of it, anyway), but hagwons will provide you with already furnished housing. Our contracts specify exactly what will be in our apartment, down to the air conditioning and gas hot plate.

- Teaching Hours. Keep a close eye out on this one, we ran into a shifty contract that stated that our working hours at the hagwon would be X to Y, but the hours could be changed at the employer's whim. We quickly steered away from that because it just sounded like it could be trouble. Our contracts state that we will be paid the standard salary (in our case, 2.1 million won) for 120 teaching hours per session (month) and class prep. For each teaching hour after the 120 hours we would get 20,000 won for overtime pay.  More specifically, our contracts state that we will be teaching from 10am to 7pm, Monday through Friday.

- Salary. How much you are getting paid. Does this include overtime, and how much are you getting paid for working overtime? Our contracts are very clear, stating what we will be paid per month and what we will make for any overtime hours worked.

- Health Care. Your employer should be paying half of your healthcare premium while you pay the other half. If it's not 50/50, then it's probably not in your best interest to sign.

- Transport. The school should either be paying for your ticket over, or you should be reimbursed by the school after arriving and starting your job. We have the added bonus of having a recruiter from the agency we worked with meeting us at the bus stop after we arrive. If you should happen to leave the country and end your contract prior to the 6 month mark, expect to pay back the school for the plane ticket there and to shell out the money to get yourself back home.

- Severance Pay. Severance pay is something that is pretty nice that you should definitely keep an eye out for. The gist of the severance is that once you have completed your year's contract that you receive a months salary as your severance payment. Per our contracts, this is "mandated by the Korean workers protection legislations."

- National Pension. Additionally, per our contracts, "approximately 4.5% of the employee's gross salary will be deducted each month for pension. Employer will match  4.5% each month for the total requirement of 9%" and it goes on to state that upon completion of your year of teaching you need to request to collect your pension from the Korean government.

- Vacation!! This is a big one, for pretty obvious reasons. You should without a doubt be getting national holidays off, but vacation can really vary depending on if you're teaching at a hagwon or a public school. Our contract states that we will receive two weeks of paid vacation, 5 days in the summer and 5 in the winter, so 10 days total.

- Taxes. Another no brainer, but it should be there. Korean taxes are 6-8% for those of us from overseas. Teachers for public schools have to complete a residency certificate, but they do not pay taxes, while those at hagwons and other institutions do. I'm in the process of working out the details of US taxes though, so that will be in the works for later.

Other contract stuff of lesser importance (you may or may not agree):

- Orientation and/or Training. You may or may not receive training or some sort of shadowing/orientation.

- Sick Days. The employer might give you some form of paid sick day, but in our contracts it specifically states that you need to bring a doctors note.

- Apartment Safety Deposit. It's apparently becoming more common for the employers to ask for a safety deposit to ensure that all is well with the apartment as you typically want a safety deposit back. In our case we're looking at a safety deposit of 300,000 won each (taken from our paychecks the first 3 months as 100,000 won) for the apartment. Once all is deemed well when we leave we should be receiving the deposit back.


This is just my experience with contracts thus far though. We had the benefit of having informed individuals look over our contracts and also having a horrible contract and a really good contract to compare and contrast. It really made things easier. The internet is always a good resource too, but you have to know where to look and who to ask is all.