Stagnant teacher salaries...............

I think that institutions are realising that they can get people who will accept those levels of pay.  The financial crisis around the world is scaring people into taking jobs where they can - and so it moves into a bit of a buyers market. 

If you have good quals and experience you can negotiate up.

There are 'categories' of pay depending on where you live as well.  The more developed provinces will pay higher - 'cost of living' justification.  Which means you DO have higher food/accommodation/transport etc costs.

The 'poor' provinces will pay more because of the lack of facilities (erratic water, electricity, transport, fewer services) to compensate for the disadvantages. 
The provinces in the middle, like Shaanxi, don't get the funding to pay extra because the cost of living is still relatively low and the facilities are relatively good. 

I think that institutions are realising that they can get people who will accept those levels of pay.

Oh yeah. "There's a foreign English teacher born every minute." This has LONG been a problem; growing numbers of applicants simply make it worse. I've always said the reason that the schools here offer such horribly low salaries (and indulge in other misbehaviors) is that they know they can get away with it...if they wait long enough, someone who doesn't know any better, or accepts the "the average local lives on 70 RMB a month" nonsense you see, or just isn't terribly bright, will come along and leap at the job.

You can negotiate up with good quals and experience...IF you're lucky enough to come across a school that cares about those things in the first place. Too many would rather get it cheap than get it right.

I was really shocked when I first came to see some schools in Beijing still offering up 4000 ish a month. I have no idea why someone would take a job in Beijing for 4000 a month when that isn't even a good salary for some place in the boonies, let alone the capital of the country. I couldn't imagine trying to live on that kind of a salary in BJ -- I mean, I know it could be done, but I doubt it would be enjoyable. The range of salaries here is really huge, however. I make well over 10K a month, have my apartment paid for, and my school principal made it clear when I started that I'd be eligible for increases if I stick around, so it isn't as if there aren't well paying jobs in Beijing. In fact, the upper limit here is much higher than in other places, but overall I still see a load of 4000-6000 a month jobs here too, and it seems like there are people willing to take them. I don't really understand why, but that's why salaries aren't rising overall.

The funny thing is, it seems that in some places salaries are rising. When I first started working at a university in Kunming, fresh out of college, they paid me less than 3000 a month (which is kind of embarrasing to admit actually, heh). People with MAs were getting 3500. Nowadays the same universities are offering 4000-5000. Training centers in KM used to pay in that range, 4000-5000, but now 6000-8000 seems to be more the norm. The salaries in KM have always been relatively crappy compared to other places, but now at least they're on the normal side of crappy rather than the near-insulting side. It seemed to me that what happened was that at some point teachers just started demanding more, and going elsewhere if they couldn't get it. All it really took in a smallish city like that was for one school to offer salaries higher than the going rate and the rest had to fall in line. Demand really is in our favor.

I just can't figure out why reasonably qualified native speakers would tolerate such low wages in a place like BJ. There's no reason for it.

I just can't figure out why reasonably qualified native speakers would tolerate such low wages in a place like BJ. There's no reason for it.

1) Some people are new to expat TEFL and just don't know any better. The schools says they're getting a great deal, and people accept it without question.

2) Some people don't care about the money....they're in this for a bit of post-retirement adventure, or are using it as a cover while they try to nail their personal religious beliefs onto the heathen locals, or have some other agenda, and simply don't care what, or even IF, they get paid....and the fact that their low-balling adversely impacts actual serious career expat teachers simply doesn't show on their radar.

3) Some people see this is a form of volunteer work, bringing their Western enlightenment to the poor benighted masses of the developing world, and are happy with a pittance for survival.

4) Some people are real morons.

All of these people are a plague upon us. The first category can be mitigated (but not eliminated) by getting the word out and educating people; the other three call for enhanced stocks of weapons and ammo.

Yea. I guess so. I just don't see why they'd choose a place like BJ to do their whole "I don't care about money" thing, seeing as how BJ is pretty expensive. I knew of lots of missionaries back in Yunnan -- I could sort of understand that, you know? Loads of poverty there, not a lot of education, a lot of heathens. But BJ? I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of souls in BJ in dire need of saving but I doubt they're interested in anything a lowly English teacher making less than what they pay their ayi has to say ... 

Although the moron thing I can see. 

I think I'm one of those idiots excepting a lower salary... at least I was until 2 weeks ago when my university in Zhengzhou, Henan) asked me if I wanted to renew my contract and I told them only if they raised my salary previously 3,700RMB.  Today they told me they could only raise it a few hundred RMB so I told them I'm not renewing.  A few hours later I found out that they have 3 new foreign teachers lined up to come in the fall who are excepting my previous salary   So now we must relocate again...  but where to go?

Seekinginfo ... that's almost criminal, that salary. As someone who is aslo supporting a young family, I can't imagine trying to do it on 3700 a month, even in a relatively cheap place. If your husband is doing the stay at home dad thing for now I strongly recommend you guys move to either a bigger city, with better salaries, or you start looking at private schools. You could, I suppose, go to another university and get a similar salary and try and pick up privates on the side, but with a baby to support I'd be much more comfortable with a higher salary. Universities are good for people who are new to China, people who only have themselves to worry about, people with alternate sources of income, and people willing to work extra hours outside to pick up the slack. Trying to support your whole family on a university salary is just unneccesarily rough, imo.

Try the big, east coast cities, or Beijing. It seems like the bunch in Suzhou does pretty well for themselves, and I have friends making good money in Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. I make over 10K RMB a month in Beijing, work 16 hours a week, and have my apartment covered by the school. Beijing is more expensive but you will make much, much more to make up for it. I am sure that even if you want to stay in Zhengzhou there are probably private schools, training centers, that will pay you at least 5000RMB a month.

The Local Dialect... I really appreciate your advice and would like to tap you for a little more if you don't mind.  Since I don't have pm privileges yet, perhaps you could email me and I could ask you some more specific questions? 

Back to the topic:  I used to teach at a higher paying private primary/middle school about an hour outside of Guangzhou (6,000RMB/mo).  Unfortunately, their were a lot of problems with getting the promised airfare, travel allowance, and even sometimes getting the regular pay.  Also, a ton of mandatory overtime was thrust upon us, usually without compensation (I worked an average of 35 hours/week on a 22hr/week max contract).  When contract issues such as these were brought to the FAO attention, another teacher and I were told that we had "poor attitudes" and our job/housing/visa was threatened .  We happened to be teaching our first year in China and so didn't know any better, I suppose  .  We stayed till the end of our year figuring everywhere was the same and hoping that the school wouldn't suddenly cancel our visa or kick us out of the housing before we got our return trip airfare.  Also, the other local foreigners were all businessmen so we didn't have much to compare our experience with.  In the end, I  married my husband, decided to stay in China, and accepted a low paying public university gig (recommended by an acquaintance) in the hopes that it would be better as far as honoring the contract.  It worked out for us this year, but now with the baby we really can't survive on such a low salary.

From the posts so far, I gather that there are better job opportunities in China (i.e. schools that pay decently and honor their contracts).  I hope this fall I will be working for one of them.

Ah, seekinginfo - we corresponded via email after I found you on ESL cafe!
Glad you made the switch and came across. 

Do keep looking. There are better playing jobs out there. For example, all the universities in my little backwater town pay more than that. None of us do overtime and we all got our airfare and whatever paid. You should have no issue finding something since you have both teaching and living in China experience.

Why don't you take down your email address (since spammers love this kind of thing)? Anyone who wants it can PM me to pass their email on to you until you get PM priveleges.

Schnerby, thanks!  I'm so glad you recommended this site to me!

Schnerbs! A Headhunter! Way to goooo!!

What seekinginfo doesn't know is I am a headhunter who is a fan of shrunken heads...