Contracts & pay
What a Korean hagwon contract actually says and what lands in your account — severance, pension, health insurance, tax, overtime and housing.
22 articles — newest first
Do I need to pay Korean pension if my contract is under three months?
Short answer: contract length by itself isn't the test. National Pension enrollment turns on your hours, how the contract is written, and your nationality, not on whether the paper says "three months."
11-09Can a hagwon deduct the cost of a laptop or uniform from your final pay?
No. Korean law requires your hagwon to pay wages in full and in cash, and a laptop or uniform cost does not have a legal basis for deduction unless you agree to it in writing, freely, after the fact.
11-05Hagwon contract signing bonus and relocation allowance: how the one-time payments are clawed back
Some hagwon contracts let the school take back a signing bonus or relocation payment if you leave early, and some of those clauses are legal under Korean labor law while others are void even if you signed them.
11-02Pension rejoining after a gap: what happens if you return to Korea on a new hagwon contract
Taking your National Pension lump-sum refund when you left does not block you from joining again. Sign a new hagwon contract, and your new school enrolls you as if the first time never happened.
10-28Hagwon contract end date and the notice period: how to exit without losing your deposit
Your employment contract and your housing lease run on two different clocks. Miss either notice window and you can lose weeks of rent or watch your deposit sit with the landlord for months.
10-24Hagwon sick leave and unpaid absence: what the Labor Standards Act actually requires
Korean labor law does not guarantee paid sick days for a common illness. What it actually guarantees is annual leave, and knowing the difference decides whether a fever costs you a vacation day or a chunk of your next paycheck.
10-21Hagwon teacher tax residency and the 183-day rule: when you actually owe Korean income tax
Most hagwon contracts run twelve months, which can make you a Korean tax resident from your first paycheck, not from day 183. Here's how the domicile test actually works, and what changes if your contract is shorter.
10-16Seven Korean pay terms to know before you sign your hagwon contract
Toejikgeum, 4대보험, and 원천징수 aren't decoration on your contract. They're the words that decide severance, deductions, and overtime, and each one comes with a real 2026 number attached to it.
09-29Severance in Korea: the one-year rule and how to make sure you get it
Finish a full year with the same employer and you are generally owed severance worth about a month of pay. The rule is simple; the ways teachers end up outside it are not, and almost all of them are avoidable.
09-26Finishing your hagwon contract? Make year two somewhere new
When your first hagwon contract ends, you can take everything you learned into a new city, a different age group or a schedule that suits you better. Tell your placement coordinator a couple of months before you finish, and we line up the next school.
09-26What a 2.3 million won hagwon contract actually pays over 12 months
At 2026 contribution rates, a 2.3 million won salary lands close to 2,076,000 won a month after the four mandatory payroll deductions, plus one month's severance and, for eligible nationalities, a pension refund when you leave.
09-23How overtime pay works at a Korean hagwon
Most hagwons pay overtime as a flat per-hour rate for classes beyond your contracted hours, worked out from your monthly salary, but the formula, the camp rate, and what even counts as "extra" differ by school, so check the actual clause before you sign.
09-15Comparing two hagwon job offers that don't use the same pay structure
Line up base salary, housing, overtime rate, pension, and severance side by side for each offer. A bigger headline number doesn't always mean more money lands in your account each month.
09-10Year-end tax settlement (yeonmal jeongsan): how it works for hagwon teachers
Yeonmal jeongsan is Korea's annual payroll tax settlement, done every January and February, and it applies to E-2 teachers the same as it applies to Korean staff. Here's how to check yours and what to do if it was missed.
09-06The tax treaty that can wipe out your Korean income tax for two years
The US–Korea tax treaty lets qualifying teachers skip Korean income tax on their teaching pay for up to two years, but the treaty text was written with universities in mind, not hagwons, and nobody files it for you automatically.
09-02Why your first hagwon paycheck may not match the number in your contract
Your first paycheck lands short for boring, legal reasons: a partial first month, a pension and health insurance start-up lag, and a teacher tax treaty that almost never covers hagwon staff at all.
08-31Health insurance for hagwon teachers: what you pay and what it covers
Your hagwon pays half your National Health Insurance premium. Here's how co-payments work at clinics and hospitals, what isn't covered, and when a private top-up policy is worth it.
08-27Hagwon monthly deductions: what comes out before your pay reaches your account
National pension, health insurance and income tax come out of every hagwon paycheck automatically. Employment insurance is the odd one: for E-2 teachers it's often optional, and few new hires realize that.
08-26National Pension refund when you leave Korea: the form, the timeline, and the withholding
Depending on your nationality, you can claim your National Pension contributions, plus the school's matching share, as a lump sum when you leave Korea. Here's the paperwork, the withholding, and the timeline.
08-13What actually comes out of your paycheck in Korea, month by month
Korean hagwons withhold pension, health insurance and income tax from every contract salary. The rates changed in January 2026, health insurance gets recalculated every April. Here's how it works before you sign.
08-10How English teacher pay in Korea works, from offer letter to payday
A hagwon offer in Korea is rarely just a monthly salary. It is a base figure plus housing, plus a flight, plus severance after a full year, plus the employer half of pension and health insurance. Two offers with the same headline number can be worth very different amounts once those five pieces are counted.
07-03Reading a hagwon contract: 12 clauses to check before you sign
Before signing a hagwon contract, check twelve things: teaching hours vs office hours, overtime rate, class size, vacation days, housing terms, the deposit, severance, pension and health insurance, the end date, the probation clause, the end-of-contract paperwork, and who pays for the visa. A contract that is vague on any of these is not ready to sign.
07-02