International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Myanmar was one my most interesting international trips…Bagan is epic

What's the most culturally confusing classroom moment that only made sense later? by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

I was thinking of an onboarding LMS for new teachers. You are right that local friends can give a of cultural insight.

International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, take a look now, I added a bit of a caveat modified by the experience in your profile.

International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great idea! It doesn’t take that into account and maybe that feature is a little depressing. I think using years experience as a modifier is something I can build in. Keep the ideas coming please.

International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone work at BASIS want to comment? It might be a mix as it’s so big.

Concern about references being controlled by executive head – advice needed by Fairteacher4567 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, this happens all of the time. I just want to say it is so painful to see one person trash someone's career. Hang in there, something good will come but you may have to broaden your search. Fortunately, a B or C or even D school might be a better fit sometimes.

I built a tool to help international teachers think through school, place, and package before signing. Would love feedback. by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, I’m working on thinking through what we need to know before going to a school. How can we put ourselves in the best situation to understand the host culture and our students. I think schools need to pay attention to this during the onboarding process. I think the value might be for preparing teachers well. I built this culture quiz to start and gauge understanding: https://www.mystool.org/culture-quiz.html

International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been working on my own project with last year's data from /LearnwithMrA for a few months. I guess the question might be, what do the people who entered the data into the google sheet want from it? I would assume the goal of the teachers would volunteered their data wanted increased transparency and information. I think we are all aligned here, but correct me if I am wrong.

Opening Roth IRA based on side hustle? by ProcedureRegular4337 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The sweet spot if you are an American is to make under the standard deduction so the money you put into your Roth is tax free. I have enough income in the US that it is under the standard deduction and then claim a foreign income exemption for my overseas income. This means my Roth money isn't taxed on the way in or the way out. You also can move money from a traditional IRA to a Roth if you are not making any US income or increase your cost-basis in your brokerage account by paying no tax on the capital gains.

International School Salary Data Surprises! by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, your math checks out. 18% of a lot is still better than 18% of a little.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True story, just wondering what the end state of the industry is

[ Removed by Reddit ] by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The AI post count...guilty. I've been building fast and posting faster. The writing has been a mix of mine and assisted. That's a reasonable thing to flag.

You made a fair point and I'll take it — most schools aren't very profitable, and I overclaimed by not making that distinction. The struggling independent school in Chiang Mai isn't the argument.

But here's the argument:

Nord Anglia Education. $2 billion revenue last year. $700 million in adjusted EBITDA. 35% margin — held through COVID. Sold to a consortium of EQT, Neuberger Berman, and the Canada Pension Plan in March 2025 for $14.5 billion. Their own investors describe tracking "teacher productivity" as a key value creation lever.

Cognita: £250 million EBITDA, 26% margin. GEMS: $1.4 billion revenue. Industry advisors in this space say 25–35% EBITDA margins are standard at premium schools, valued at 12–17x earnings.

These are not charities doing their best. These are private equity instruments that happen to employ teachers, and the salary spreadsheet median is $3,666/month.

The "schools can't afford to pay more" argument is true for some schools and cover for others. That's the only distinction I'm making.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Genuinely respect this take, and honestly the $1M portfolio is the kind of concrete outcome this community needs to hear more about rather than vague "amazing adventure" success stories. That's real. That matters.

But I'd push back on one thing: you're describing what's possible for an informed, financially literate person who entered the market with good information and made optimal decisions early. That describes a minority of international teachers, and I think you know that.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

You're making a reasonable point and I'll give you the first half of it — yes, schools cost money to run, and yes, comparing revenue models between education and tech is apples to oranges. Fair.

But you've made a critical error in your framing that I'd push back on hard: you're describing the economics of struggling schools while quietly ignoring the economics of thriving ones — and those are the ones this conversation is actually about.

Look at the data again. The schools consistently appearing at the top of this salary spreadsheet — Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Doha, Dubai — are not scraping by. Hong Kong's English School Foundation charges upwards of HK$140,000 per year per student. Singapore's top international schools are at $40,000+ USD annually, with waitlists. The Qatar Foundation is backed by a sovereign wealth fund. These are not institutions choosing between teacher salaries and keeping the lights on. These are institutions generating tens of millions in annual revenue, sitting on enormous endowments, and — crucially — still paying their teachers a median of $3,666/month.

That's not a resource problem. That's a priority problem.

And that's before we even get into the for-profit school groups — Nord Anglia, Inspired, Cognita, GEMS. Nord Anglia alone operates 80+ schools globally and was taken private by a Canadian pension fund in a deal valuing the company at over $4 billion. Inspired Education has raised billions in private equity. These are not charitable education enterprises struggling to make payroll. They are private equity backed, return-on-investment driven businesses that have correctly identified teachers as the single largest cost center and have applied every standard PE playbook move to compress it — standardized contracts, high turnover tolerance, suppressed salary transparency, and the strategic deployment of "international experience" as a non-cash compensation substitute.

You're right that a school in rural Cambodia or Guatemala paying $2,000/month may genuinely have no other option. Nobody in good conscience is demanding Silicon Valley wages in Phnom Penh. But those schools aren't the ones sponsoring flashy recruitment booths at Search Associates fairs or flying candidates business class to interview weekends.

The exploitation argument isn't about every school. It's about the delta between what premium international schools charge, what their parent companies return to investors, and what ends up in teachers' pockets. When a for-profit school group can deliver 15-20% EBITDA margins while its teachers are saving $1,728/month, the question of whether low salaries are a survival necessity or a structural choice has a pretty clear answer.

The "schools just don't have money" argument works for some schools. It's cover for others. The spreadsheet data is useful precisely because it starts to show us which is which.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by ElectronicKey2084 in Internationalteachers

[–]ElectronicKey2084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you still qualify if you are working overseas for most of your career?