At CE, for native teachers (born in USA, GB, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), we pay the market English school rate of between 16 to 20 Euros an hour. 16 Euros is the base rate and ETS (Extra Travel Supplements) kick it up from one to a maximum of 5 Euros (we rounded it to 20 as 21 can happen but it is unusual). For bilingual teachers (born in another country but with a bilingual English level) we pay between 14-18 Euros an hour. The base rate is 14 Euros and ETS (Extra Travel Supplements) kick it up from one to a maximum of 5 Euros. We feel we are very fair with the ETS, because the entire ETS goes to the teacher. We do not take a cut of the ETS, it’s all for you!
Wages at other Academies
Hourly wages vary between schools, but the Canterbury English range is considered market price. This wage is in your pocket after taxes etc. Many English schools quote you higher rate, but when it gets down to the take home dough, it’s whittled down to a lower rate than Canterbury English, because it’s not a net wage they initially attract you with but a gross wage. But what you are interested in is in the pocket, so at Canterbury English we don’t play with inflating the wage to make it look good on paper, we tell you the net take-home wage.
What we Charge our Clients
We charge a Mom & Pop 21 Euros the hour for a class for a Bilingual teacher and 24 Euros an hour for a Native teacher, so the margins are quite small for English schools. We’ve tried putting up our prices to be able to pay our teachers more, but when we have done so, there is an automatic plummet in demand. You just can’t charge more than this for an hour of English, the market won’t support it. Working Ma’s and Pa’s can’t pay any more than this to have their children educated and after all, one must ask oneself, are we in this just for the money, or are we providing a service that helps people in life. If we are, we don’t’ want to try and overcharge them. Our service must be able to be affordable for them and fit into their monthly Spanish household budget. Private English classes are already somewhat of a luxury in Spain, so let’s keep it affordable. What comes around goes around!
Other TEFL Programs Publicity on Wages and the Truth
Some TEFL programs say that you can charge between 34 and 40 Euros an hour for a specialty class. Maybe Filipe IV, the King of Spain, will pay that price, but he speaks perfect English, so he doesn’t need classes! What they also don’t tell you is that to charge the highest end class (for example you find a company that wants to pay for a group class directly to you without going through an English school), then you need to provide an official bill (factura) for them. To provide an official bill, you have to be registered with the government as a self-employed worker (freelance and you can’t do this on a student visa) and be paying your Social Security fees which is 341 Euros a month, 12 months a year. Not many English teachers can do this. This is the reality. That’s why you can’t directly work for a company and if you can’t directly work for a company, then you can’t charge that kind of money. Our highest-most expensive specialty class for a group of ten students is 34 Euros an hour, out of which we have to subtract Social Security, taxes, rent, employees and a long etc. And we’ve been here in Madrid doing this for almost 30 years! So now you have the real and honest information about what you can charge. And that is important for you so you can make the correct decision about your life. We want you to come and do our TEFL program and live the adventure we ex-pats are living. But we are going to be honest about it, so that you know exactly what to expect when you arrive in Spain, because you’re going to find out anyway once you’re here and we’re going to be friends and colleagues and have drinks together at pub night, so friends tell friends the truth!
Reality Check: Other Program’s Publicity
Other TEFL programs, who don’t teach English and don’t have the “Know How” and extensive experience that Canterbury English has, say you can earn between 20-25 Euros an hour (an average of 22,50€) fresh of the boat with no experience for private classes. Why would anyone in Spain want to pay between 22-23 Euros an hour, when there are thousands of English teachers in Madrid charging less. Jonathan Clarke, brother of the founder, charges 20 Euros an hour for his classes. He has taught in Taiwan, Japan and Spain for twenty years and is an expert, professional English teacher. Johnny, a University professor from Cal Poly California, with 25 years experience in Madrid, charges 20 Euros an hour for his private classes. Canterbury English, almost 30 years in the market with all the resources and guarantees of a Professional English Academy, charges 21 Euros an hour for a bilingual teacher and between 21 and 24 Euros an hour for a native teacher. So how can a TEFL graduate with no experience charge 20-25 Euros an hour? That might be true in an advertising bubble world, but not here in Madrid. Reality checks are better to have before you arrive than after you get here! We don’t want someone pouring a beer over our heads at pub night!
On than note, after our reality check, here’s the truth, the real deal that, as it seems, only CE will tell you: A private bilingual English teacher usually charges from 10-15 Euros an hour and a native English teacher, 15-20 Euros an hour (depending on your experience). Once in a while you might get a “good gig” for whatever reason, and be able to charge more, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.
Monthly Salary
Let’s say, to be safe, you’re teaching 20 hours a week at 16 Euros the hour (again to be safe). If you do 4 weeks of classes that’s 80 hours a month * 16 = 1280 Euros. You can add to this any extra hours over 20 that you do as well as ETS (Extra Travel Supplements, quite a few classes have an ETS). You would add to this the extra days in a month. For example a month has 4 weeks and three days or two days or one day. You would have to subtract from this amount any business or bank holidays as well as school holidays. For example at Christmas you earn less money because of the holidays. The same happens during the Easter holidays as well. But basically this gives you a ballpark idea about what you can earn, subject to many variations. Private classes cancel more, but as an English school we have very strict makeup rules (designed by teachers and for teachers and therefore stacked on our side of the balance) so that the teacher losses as few classes as possible during the month. Often you actually make more money with a Canterbury English class that pays 16 Euros than your own class that pays at 20 Euros an hour. The reason is that we have a contract with the students and they have to pay for all the classes, no matter what and this means they are very keen on doing makeup classes for a class they cancelled for illness or whatever reason. They have a month to make the class up and you get paid for it. If there is any problem, we call and remind them about the rules and contract they have signed with us and this keeps the student in line and keeps you pay check safe! With your own privates it’s difficult to avoid cancellations and students don’t usually bother about making the class up, so you lose the class. If your own client cancels a lot with no make ups then we advise you to drop them and open up that slot to a safer Canterbury English class. Anything over a thousand euros is considered a decent wage in Spain.
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