I work as an English teacher in a Western European country, at an academy, and this place where I'm employed originally asked me to write down my ideal hourly wage at the interview. Later when we reviewed the application we negotiated a slightly lower rate and i left there pleased enough. I've been teaching for many years but I'd been living in Asia and coming back to Europe at a new school i figured I'd need to put in the time to get a raise the following school year.
It took him two weeks to get me the contract to sign. A month in, i get my first paycheck and it's a lower number than imagined. I went in to talk to the director and he pulls out his calculator and starts to calculate:
(Hourly rate) x (hours per week) x 4… That would mean there are 4 weeks of work per month, when it fact every month has a few extra days so it comes out to about 4.5 weeks.
I reminded him that months do not in fact have 20 working days but 22.5 on average since there are famously only 28 days in ONE month of the year and that's not even every year. He told me he'd never thought about that before and that he'd get back to me.
Two weeks later we meet again and he tells me “I was very close to adjusting your salary, but if i do it for you I'd have to do it for everyone else at the school”. When i tried arguing with him why he was essentially taking a month's pay from me in the 10 months that we work (since 2.5 days every month that I'm not paid comes out to 25 days over the course of the contract), his son who is another director, asked me “But, are you not doing well with money right now?” I couldn't even respond to that because i was shocked at the stupidity of the question.
I swear this was the biggest test of my patience. Years ago i would've exploded and told them to fuck off but I knew the situation wouldn't be any better if i quit. Unfortunately here, if you don't find a job as a TEFL teacher in October/November, you're screwed until the following school year and just have to take a few hours here and there. So I've had to stay all this year until end of June. Also, since the “hourly rate” is just being used to calculate a monthly salary, it's impossible to take any real legal action. Basically, he used his calculation to calculate my monthly salary and that's what eventually was on my contract, which I'd received two weeks after starting.
I came back here from Asia bc i wanted to have a more stable life and to settle down, but this immediately made me rethink my plans. This academy is meant to be well established and serious and that's why I took the job there. I'd gone to 8 other interviews where i was offered the job on the spot but i thought it'd be better to take the most long-term offer.
Unfortunately, employers here do so much shady shit. I want to change my profession but i also need to survive. Cost of living is impossibly high here and when i expect to just receive what I've agreed to, I'm treated like I'm begging. The world of teaching also relies so much on references since we work with children and work independently so I can't rightly do much.
Thought this rant belonged here.