What’s a good salary in China?

If you're considering teaching English in China, you'll want to look into the greatest pay and benefits packages. But figures may be deceitful, and it's difficult to interpret them when you're halfway over the globe.

It's a good thing some intelligent individuals have created massive crowdsourced databases on living expenses all across the globe. The most popular is Numbeo, which looks at obvious expenditures like rent and electricity, but also everyday costs like food, transportation, and entertainment to give you a complete picture.

So let's look at the stats. First, how much does it cost to live in Fuzhou compared to the West?

Various Cities' Living Costs

So, clearly, living expenses are lower in China, but are all Chinese cities equally cheap?

This well produces Fuzhou. Fuzhou's cost of living is around 25% cheaper than Shanghai's and 20% lower than Beijing's. These include restaurant meals, alcohol, taxi and bus fees, and milk cartons. All the staples you need every week.

But, I know what you're thinking: “Aren't salaries lower in China?” While they are lower, they also reflect the cost of living AND the working hours.

Unlike in our home nations, teachers at York work roughly 31 hours each week.

Housing is the ultimate salary factor. How much of your income goes to rent? 30 %? 40%? More? What about utility bills?

Free Housing Benefits

Now, rent is not a problem for our teachers. Because rent is much lower in Fuzhou than in York, we offer nice housing for our instructors. Was bedeutet das für Sie? So we can offer our instructors flats of over 90m2. If you go to school in Shanghai or Beijing, you will either be living in a dormitory or kilometers away from your school (mind alone employment in those locations).

At York, we take great care to match our apartments to your needs in terms of location, size, quality, and amenities (yes, that means western toilets). It's going to be your home for the next 12 months, so why risk it? It would just cause future problems.

That implies you may utilize 30-40% of your paycheck for other things instead of paying rent. Yes, the pay is smaller, but you'll have more money at the end of each month.

So, what's the bottom line? How much does the typical York teacher spend/save each month?

Work in China and Save Money

Your calculations show that migrating to China is a financially sound decision. Even though incomes are lower, it is far cheaper than living in the West. But first, how much of your paycheck can you save in the west? 5%? 10%? 15%?

Instantly, you can see that housing costs are low. The only portion of housing that a York teacher pays is utility expenses. The key takeaway is that saving and vacations consume a large portion of a normal teacher's budget, which is a wonderful thing to do. This is also an estimate. Some instructors have saved more than others with us, it all depends on your lifestyle.

That implies a teacher earning 9,000RMB may save 2,700RMB each month. Approximately the course of a year, it adds up to over 32,000RMB (or over $5,000). Quite a bit.

Then consider this: everything earned over that goes into savings. A second year teacher saves 80,000RMB (nearly $12,000) every year (beginning at 11,000RMB and increasing up to 13,000RMB). That pays off a lot of college debts, contributes to a home deposit, or gives you a year or more of globe travel!

Not to mention all of this while traveling across Asia, working and living in one of the world's most interesting nations.