Hagwon holidays and paychecks

As in the U.S., different workplaces in Korea pay employees differently. Whether it’s biweekly, monthly, or according to the school’s term calendars, the paycheck schedule is normally a minor issue, but I’ve noticed confusion about it can hurt morale.

I remember that at ECC, they paid according to their four week-long school terms. At first, that sounded good to me, since with 52 weeks in a contract year I figured I’d be paid for 13 months of pay. (“Yay! an extra month of pay!”)

However, due to the New Year and Chuseok holidays, the terms for February and September were extended to five weeks. Other legal holidays similarly extended the terms they were in (parents always got four full weeks of classes for their money), which took up the other two weeks of that “13th” month. In the end, I got 12 months of pay for my 12 months of work.

The CDI system is slightly different. Terms last 13 weeks, and teachers are paid on the 10th of every month for the number of class-hours taught in the previous calendar month. CDI promises a minimum of 96 (8 three-hour classes per week), though that only happens in a normal February. In most other months I’ll top 100, since I’ll typically have classes on those two or three days at the end of a month.

Like a retail store or restaurant, my school doesn’t really observe holidays, which can be good or bad depending on how much one needs the money. Holidays that fall on a Wednesday or Saturday are an exception, though. Because my school only offers three classes on those days, my director has chosen to close on those days and reschedule the students into other classes on days of the week.

Since I have one of those Wednesday-Saturday classes, I’ll be getting a full holiday on June 6 and August 15 (Memorial Day and Liberation Day). That’s pretty cool – I can always use another day off – but to be honest, right now I’d rather have the money.