The International Schools Review Forum

I used to work in Guangzhou but not at the American International School. Not looking for a review of the school but does anyone know anything about salary? Do you have to pay taxes? I know someone there but I haven't been able to get in touch with them.

Two years ago, the school posted this in the Search profile:

Salary:
- Teachers with a BA and 4 years: $44000 (before taxes)
- Teachers with a MA and 8 years: $55000 (before taxes)
Percentage deducted for taxes from stated salary: 25-30%

Savings potential:
- Couple (both teaching) with 2 children: $33000
- Single teacher: $27000
- Single teacher with one dependant: $20000+

Be aware that self-reported savings potential is often a lot less reliable than the self-reported salary.

If the teachers at AISG are being paid in RMB those figures are out of whack, the exchange two years ago was 6.4 and today its 7.04.

The anchor points provided by @Heliotrope are both outdated and are self report of the IS. You could have a BA+4 years and easily not be offered the salary described.

PsyGuy wrote:
> The anchor points provided by @Heliotrope are both outdated and are self
> report of the IS. You could have a BA+4 years and easily not be offered the
> salary described.


I already mentioned it was self-reported, and that they're two years old.

In my experience (and those of a few friends in IE) the actual salary is quite often pretty close to the self-reported salaries on Search, and someone I know in Guangzhou does save about a much as the school stated, but she doesn't travel much, and the travelling she does do is within China (apart from trips home during Summer break).

@Heliotrope

We disagree, our experiences differ.

Melting the butter and looking for my popcorn...

Current Search numbers show $55K for BA+4 and $66K for MA+8. These figures are not net and they state 16% taxes with them claiming the same savings amount as noted before. Salaries in China seem to be trending up, and I recently accepted a position at a school in the Guangdong region for $70k so these numbers seem plausible.

AISG people pay taxes on their earnings. They used to give a stipend for housing, but now at least for new people they provide housing. But I was talking to someone working there who is planning on moving out of the provided housing and using it to rent a place themselves. Several years back the salary scales were increased when the RMB was revalued. I think a lot of schools like AISG in China are re-evaluating their pay scales with the RMB re-evaluation. I know my school is considering it.

My friend who works there told me they switched up they salary scale a year (maybe it was two) ago with the intent to be more competitive with other APAC schools who they see as peer institutions. It was better for many people and more incoming people, but there were aspects of the health care that changed which were not so good for my friend's family.

You used to be able to keep money that was allocated for housing that you didn't spend. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but you would have to pay the 25% tax the housing stipend above what you spent. You could reduce the tax liability by collecting food fapiao (official receipts spent at restaurants). There were people who were earning through not spending their whole housing stipend.

Eion

eion_padraig wrote:
> AISG people pay taxes on their earnings"

Based on my experience then this could be up to 30%