Rates of pay at Berlitz language school

Does anyone know roughly the Berlitz rates of pay?

When I worked for them 2 years ago it was €11,76 per 45 minute session, on a freelance basis, so you pay your own taxes, health insurance, etc.

Is that even above minimum wage?! I know minimum wage doesn't apply when you're a freelancer, but still..

Germany does not have a minimum wage...I think they were discussing it on the Weekend (or the last one) Sabine Christinsen (whatever she is called)...saying that the Uk and America have one so how come people in germany can earn 3 Euros per hour and it is not against the law...

There are minimum wage levels in industries or craft but no general minimum wage...

I know for a fact that they still payed that amount(€11.00)last year which is really funny considering they only take candidates with university degrees. Unskilled workers earn more working on building sites. Cleaning ladies get €10 the hour. A friend of mine told me that the teachers demonstrated against their low wages on Marienplatz.

The UK's minimum wage is the equivalent of about €7,50 an hour and it's lower still in the US, so €11,76 per 45 minutes isn't slave labour pay. Nonetheless, it seems very low when you consider the amount of unpaid time spent preparing for a class, marking homework etc, and when you consider how much more translators charge.

... not to mention travelling time. Many teachers spend a good part of their time travelling from place to place to teach. Also doesn't get paid. And the €11 is before tax and teachers have to pay the full contribution towards the German pension fund on their own (19% I believe). So if a teacher works at Berlitz you have:
Rate per unit: €11.96
Minus pension contribution(19%):€9.68
Minus tax:€2
Leaves:€8 per unit (more or less).
The teacher gets paid €8 for preparing at home, making photocopies, travelling, the actual teaching etc. At the end of the day if you were to calculate the teacher's hourly salary you would propably get to €2 per hour for somebody with a university degree, fluent in German and English and with teaching qualifications/degree/experience.
My friend is an Italian teacher. He used to work at the VHS. When the teachers complained about the low wages, they all got fired (ok, they were anyway freelancing but their contracts got cut). The other VHS were told not to employ any of those teachers who participated in the strike.

If you consider all of this, you are probably better off working as a cleaner. That way you get to take the full €10 home.

don't cleaners pay tax then?

If I remember correctly, my German teachers were paid 20 Euro/45min "hour". That was nearly 2 years ago.

At Berlitz? Then maybe they pay the German teachers more. But the English teachers only get €11.96. I know that my Italian friend gets paid less than €20 per hour for teaching at the VHS.
@Boomtownrat
Cleaners often work without paying taxes. Not possible for teachers, because they are listed.

no, wasn't Berlitz or VHS.
It was the going rate at that time, as I understood.

Hey, looky-looky what I find on Toytown today.Berlitz Job Offer Just pm the person directly and ask if it's true that teachers at Berlitz get paid that crap.
If the answer is yes, well, then there is still this ad(looking for a cleaner).

Iain - there are other schools out there that will pay more from 18 Euros per unit (45 minutes) to 22 Euros (specialist i.e. professional English) and then more depending on your experience and competency. Good luck.

hey MBummer, maby we can get the mods to merge this thread with the Berlitz Job Offer one

I taught at Berlitz here in Munich for 1 1/2 years, so maybe I can provide some facts:

The wage (at the time I taught 2 years ago) was €11,76 per 45 minute session (unit).

Most classes are taught at the schools (Marienplatz or Schwabing.) Classes outside the schools (taught in companies, etc.) that were outside of the 2 inner rings of Munich were sometimes also paid a travel credit, depending on distance, of €11,76 per 45 minutes travel.

One benefit of Berlitz over most other language schools is that you do not need any previous teaching experience or teaching qualifications. They do *require* a university degree, but it doesn't have to be a teaching degree. My degree was in Anthropology, for example.

You do not need to speak any German to teach English at Berlitz. Of course, it comes in handy sometimes, but one of the principles of the Berlitz Method is total immersion, i.e. no speaking to your students in their native language, and no translating for them.

If you want to work for Berlitz, you are required to take a one week, 40-hour course in the "Berlitz Method" to learn the teaching method that you must use. This is not paid, however it also doesn't cost anything. Once you pass this course, you can teach at any Berlitz in the world.

In theory, you do not have to do a lot of preparation work for the classes you teach, as 95% of classes are taught from the Berlitz books. The books have step by step teacher's guides, so again, in theory, you should just be able to walk in 5 minutes before the class and teach from the book. In practice, I found that I learned most of the material within the first 3 months of teaching, and then had to do very little prep before each class. You are not expected to do extensive preparations or create your own lesson plans. Of course, there are occasions when this varies (i.e. a special workshop), but then you can also request preparation credits if you really have to do a lot of work on your own.

The number of classes you can "pick up" vary greatly. Good teachers who really hustle and also ingratiate themselves with the secretaries who book the classes can get upwards of 30 units a week. There were times I had 30 units a week, and other times where I only had 6 or 9. It varies a lot, and is not always within your control.

Berlitz was a good way for me to get a start in teaching in Munich. Since I didn't have any teaching credentials, I couldn't get started with any other schools. However, after having "teaching experience", I was able to pick up freelance classes with other schools that paid better. So it can be a foot in the door into the world of English teaching. There may be better ways to do it, but this was the one that worked for me.

I stopped teaching for Berlitz because it wasn't a livable wage for me. I needed full time work and also a reliable income, not one that varied greatly from month to month. I also had a fairly high tax class because I was married and my husband was employed, so we took a nasty hit on taxes that made it not worthwhile for the money. But some people might like the flexibility of that kind of work, it just didn't work for me.

There's probably points I forgot, but those are the basics. And as I haven't taught there for over 2 years, some info may be outdated.

Quite why any teacher would work for that amount of money is beyond me. There are SO many schools in Munich, it's ridiculous. Don't waste your time working for Berlitz. Don't work for anyone who pays less than €20 for 45 mins. If you do, you're just selling yourself way short and allowing them to make a very nice profit. You're the one doing the work don't forget.

I agree that the money is horrendous. But, like leeza said- if you're looking to get into teaching but have no experience or no CELTA/TEFL/etc certificate, then this is one way to get your foot in the door. There might be schools that pay €20 who will hire you without having any teaching experience, but I'd imagine most places prefer to take somebody who does.

Edit: Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what Berlitz charge companies or students for a 45-minute lesson? I'd heard through the grapevine awhile back that Berlitz in Erfurt was charging a company €75/unit (while paying their teachers about €11/hr, which is more than a bit shit, in my opinion).

I have just been reading the thread, and am quiet shocked at the low pay of professional teachers. I mean, its like a slap in the face isn't it?
What would it take for TTer Teachers to ground their own school?

I think the point is that they are not professional teachers, they are just native english speakers with any old University degree.

In some ways I can therefore understand this rate of pay. They provide all the training, and you don't have to prepare. You just have to go through a book with your students. Compared to what most proper language teachers would have to do, I think this probably pretty easy in comparison.

One thing it does tell me though is that being a language student at Berlitz is probably not a great idea! I very much doubt the quality of the teachers is going to be high when they get 11 euros an hour!

This is an ad on the Berlitz website.

If my calculations are correct you pay Eur 649.00 for 75 hours tuition (excluding breaks) = Eur 8.65 per hour for a class of 6 to 12 students.
If a teacher is only getting Eur 11.76 it would work out better for both parties to do privite one to one tuition for 8, 9 or 10 euros an hour.
Even better would be to get a friend and offer a teacher 15 euros and hour.

All these language schools are such a rip off.

Er, actually it would work out worse for both parties, because the student is paying more and the teacher is getting paid less. Getting two people together and paying €15 would, however, make sense.

I worked there almost 7 years ago. That time in Berlin the pay was 22 marks per 45 minute session. Therefore if its just €11 or so now then its not really a good wage in my opinion. That time in Berlin travel was paid, Its difficult to earn a wage there as the work is mostly freelance and there is no guarentee from one month to the next

ich lach mich tod as a German would say...well spotted

But you are not taking into account that the student is getting private tuition rather then in a class of 6 to 12, therefore much better value for money, and the teacher doesn't have to declare their wages, therefore no tax is taken out.

Better for both parties I think.

Yes, except when the teacher needs a steady income from a regular, i.e. declared job, which I believe is the case of the original poster.

At the moment they pay 11.76 € per 45 minute Unit. If you give a class not using Berlitz material you get a massive 50cents more per unit as you need to prepare your own material. The only advantage of working there is to get experience teaching when you are not qualified and/or are just starting out (their training is ok but not the equivalent of doing a CELTA/TEFL). At the moment if you are available you will get heaps of classes. They are desperate for teachers at the moment as their marketing machine seems to be working well. Remember, a lot of other schools will not even interview you if you don't have a minimum qualification of CELTA/TEFL. Therefore it makes no sense to compare Berlitz with those schools. The teachers demanding higher wages were the contract teachers not the freelancers, who haven't got a leg to stand on when it comes to making wage demands. You have to work 3 years as a freelancer for Berlitz before they will consider offering you a contract. In that time you could have done the CELTA cert. and moved onto schools that pay 26€/unit upwards.

If they're desperate for teachers they ought to pay more than what a fucking cleaning lady gets. I thought about teaching night and weekend classes for them and was about to send them my CV. Then this thread showed up. Thanks.

woof.

Is BD now about to write a CV for the cleaning lady job?

Berlitz pays very little, but they require very little from you as well. You don't need to have experience, don't need to know anything about the English language, don't need to travel, don't need to prepare lessons. If you work for another school, you will be required to have all those things and will be paid better. I'd say average teaching wage in Munich (other parts of Germany will be different due to cost of living) is around 22 Euros. But don't think that just speaking English is enough for you to get work at that rate.

I have been both a student and a teacher at Berlitz. I taught in Germany 10 years ago when I was a student (so no degree yet) so the shit pay and flexible hours didn't bother me (although I am sure I was getting the equivalent of about €12 per unit, mad that it hasn't changed in 10 years!). I liked their method but did think that it might make life a bit easy for lazy/shit teachers - on the other hand, the director at our school sat in on a few classes at the beginning and seemed to very quickly see who had real potential - it was clear in the hours she gave us and I agreed with her choices. I taught groups and one-to-one and felt their method was very good, allowing a little room for each teacher's style and personality, but not so much that this would dominate what and how the students learned. Even fairly 'learning resistant' students could learn the basics. At the same time, I was teaching once a week at the local VHS and getting paid a lot more, but I found it awful - big groups of unmotivated students.

A few years ago I learned French at Berlitz in Paris in a one-on-one class. I went twice a week for a year and found it excellent - I couldn't fault it in any significant way. At some points, I felt they were chopping and changing teachers too much (I understand they need to do this a little both for my flexibility and their schedule) and once I voiced my concerns they were very responsive. They seemed to have quite a few long-standing members of staff. Their method worked very well for me and was based on a very natural method of language acquisition. Now, my company was paying and I know it cost several grand, but if you are really, really motivated it will be worth it.

As a student I would recommend it with no reservation (but it's expensive) As a teacher, if you have no previous experience it is a good place to start as the training/method is very helpful if you don't know where to start. You could then move on to a better paying school with a bit of experience and structure behind you and build on that.

They have a very successful method and they know it. That's how they get away with charging students so much (and peddling books, cd's etc) and paying teachers so little. I'm glad I did it both times - would happily be a student again, but not a teacher.

I also taught at Berlitz and also studied there.

However, I think the method is not so great...more Marketing than real substance. There is a method earlier on (point at that stupid big book with pictures and act like a clown*) and then at the higher levels it is just a bog standard grammar book - which you can buy in any bog standard language shop. As for their publishing empire...they've got a brand and exploit it well!!! (Most language books are more or less standard now...buy one and you've bought another...people at the end of the day should buy on a style that suits them...) Says the chap who has a huge language library at home...!!! From 501 Russian Verbs to Berlitz Vocabulary books.

So I for one wouldn't recommend them so much since they are expensive in relation to other schools (and how can you really learn german without some Grammar!!!), however, if your company is paying then maybe. (Shite that has brought back memories of the der, die, das, den, dem, die lessons the Birlitz way...fcuk was that stupid and hard to graps with someone pointing at a picture!).

Maybe, I'm not allowed to say this but the TEFL stuff is another money spinner the courses are so expensive...so I wouldn't make out there is a huge difference between some one holding this certificates and someone not..(well yeah a difference - a £1,000 difference).

* I use to jump around to make it lively when I did it...(bit like a prat!)...made my student laugh and wake up, though.

My sister used to work at Berlitz in Dublin, seems that the culture of the company was relatively laissez faire. Prolly due to the high turnover of staff. She earned a little over minimum wage too.

On a related note: looks like someones been at the Irish minimum wage entry in Wikipedia.

Fortunately, malicious changes to Wikipedia entries are usually deleted within about five to ten minutes... Although this one took a disappointing 85 minutes.

Prolly kids doing a school project on wages. If only Mrs. Lueshen knew, she could pull her best "Why I oughta face".

Someone said above that you don't need to travel when working at Berlitz - not true. When I was working there all my classes were in companies except for one. Sometimes I would get an extra unit travel time if the location was outside of the innerzone (Munich) but this was rare. I always had the hassle of having to lug their materials with me, and was expected to carry my own CD player as they were too anal to let them out of the school. Needless to say, I didn't use the audio material much. I too was a student at the school and was shocked to see how little teachers get paid. Definitely not a long term proposition, and I had the impression that there was a high turnover of freelance staff.

If you don't want to look like a complete idiot in front of a class you DO need to have an idea of how to teach the grammar points. Perhaps it is not as professional as other schools, but you do learn some teaching techniques if you take the initiative to ask the supervisors and more experienced staff. My philosophy was always if the pay is too crap for you, then go somewhere else (which I did in the end). It's not like there is a shortage of English language schools in Munich.

I worked at a Berlitz competitor for quite a while here in Munich and had some experience of a similar school in Japan. Basically I loved the job, the students were great, but I left 'cos the conditions were unacceptable and the company (more so in Japan) just didn't really care about the teachers. Basically there are so many native speakers ou there looking for work tat you are totally disposable, so this whole 'career ladder' thing is bullshit. I agree that it's a great way of getting your foot in the teaching door, but only if you really don't need the money.

In Germany I was friends with many of my students (it was forbidden in Japan) and they all used to complain to me about the general standards of teaching at the school. They paid a fortune for their course, and yet when the teachers, who are meant to be the guarantors of the method, are on such low wages (13.86) they are being totally ripped off cos there is NO WAY a quality teacher should be being paid that much. German students are very demanding, (and rightly so after paying a bleeing fortune!) and they want to know about grammar and idioms and slang and all the little things that make languages fun, and if you can't confidently tell them the difference between the present perfect simple and the present perfect continuous then they're not gonna be happy and they're not gonna be shy in telling you!

The long and short of it all is that these language schools are out to make money, they're all about profit. Pure and simple, and it's astonishing how blatant they can be about it. a colleague was giving private lessons to a student arranged by the school. The student paid €60 for one hour, of which my colleague received 13.86. Where did the rest go? Certainly not to the one person who put in all the effort planning and preparing and delivering the lesson that's for sure.

It's a shame English teaching is so badly paid, cos it's a hell of a lot of fun. I left for the basic reason that on a 30 hour contract I couldn't afford to live in Munich on what I was taking home.

I bet I know which competitor you are talking about:)

The following might be of interest:-
(Source, "Brand eins" Magazine, January 2007)
"The German battle against free-lancers / self employed"
Page 54 "The lonely section (of the working population)"
Herr Lotter explains why it is bad news to be a free-lancer in Germany.
If you work as a free-lance teacher for Berlitz AND
you work for more than a year for them AND they account for
more than 3/4 or 5/6 of your income the following applies-
You are liable to be regarded as "Scheinselbständig".
This means that there is a "hidden" employer/employee
relationship.
The penalty?
You must pay "Krankenversicherung, Rentenversicherung und
Arbeitlosigkeitsversicherung" for the previous FIVE years!
(and believe me, this is big money)
This all rings true - I had problems as an IT contractor and had to get
my Steuerberater to fill out the forms and get me OK'd by the
"Deutschen Rentenversicherung-Bund".)
So, no risk for Berlitz, but plenty for you if you fit into the above
category!

Wow, those are some pretty heavy penalties. Surely the language schools must have some obligations to inform the freelancers, particularly given many are foreigners new to the country and definitely not aware of all the ins and out of German tax law. Someone should stick that up in the teacher's room in Berlitz. (and watch the exodus)

"Foreigners new in the country" are fair game to many language schools.
(After all, it is a very competitive business).
German employment law is "Alice in Wonderland" compared with US/UK.
Weighted almost totally IN the interests of the employee -
but totally AGAINST the interests of the freelancer.
No wonder that employers want naive freelancers...
Since 1998 I've worked as a programmer for four German firms -
as a UK based contractor, annual (German) contractor, and as an employee
for two German firms.
Two were ethical (highly) and two were cowboys.
One of the "cowboy" firms (for whom I worked as an employee)
told me the contract they had with their (large Bank) customer
was not being renewed - would I sign this piece of paper?
The piece of paper was an "Aufhebungsvertrag" - voluntary agreement
to leave the job.
I said "no" and went to an Anwalt that afternoon. He told me, never
sign an "Aufhebungsvertrag" - you lose your right to unemployment
pay for months and the right to get yout job back (in many cases).
The upshot was substantial redundancy pay. (I could have had the job back,
but did not want to work for the outfit any longer) and generous unemployment pay.
(You do pay a mighty amount for unemployment insurance).
And - the Anwalt (employment law specialists in Hamburg) did not charge me a penny!
The joke was that two German employees had signed these contracts before me,
much to their detriment.
Many Germans have little knowledge of the complex employment laws.
Foreigners need to take advice or lose out big style.

I would agree with that as well. I think the problem is that there doesn't seem to be a standard at all. Some schools offer excellent teacher training for CELTA/TEFL, while others are more of a joke. The one I did was a complete joke. It was a month-long course in Prague and should be viewed more as a holiday camp for spoiled, bored 20-somethings who were more interested in where to buy the best drugs than taking part in a real training course. I mean, there was a girl in my group who didn't know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. And she still didn't know by the end of the course. AND she still got a certificate to teach, so...

anyone know the same details (wage and terms...) at modolingo?

anyone?

I just got finished reading this article and I'm not sure if you read the text carefully. It says:

Für die Auftraggeber der sogenannten Scheinselbstständigen konnte das bedeuten, dass sie Sozialabgaben für Kranken-, Renten- und Arbeitslosenversicherung für fünf Jahre nachzahlen mussten.

The "Auftraggeber" (i.e. Berlitz) would be the ones having to pay back deductions, not the "Auftragnehmer" (i.e. Teachers). I also assume that this would only apply if the this so called "Scheinselbstständigkeit" had existed for the previous five years - otherwise, they could not legally collect these monies.

Regarding Scheinselbständig stuff, read here on the English Teachers in Germany forum:

http://p219.ezboard.com/The-Myth-about-Sch...opicID=51.topic

This site is THE place to get to know everything you need to know before thinking about teaching English here.

Animuc is quite right - I misread the article. I was lead astray by page 61, line 8 " Die Risiken tragen die Selbständigen.." Which is only correct to a certain degree. It is the case that most of the presumed "back social security payments" must be paid by the "employer". However it is possible that the "employee" would be liable for back "Rentenversicherung" payments. When this law came in I was an IT contractor and was due to pay lots of money if I couldn't prove I was genuine "selbstandig". My Steuerberater filled the form in for me and I was given the OK. Otherwise it would have been lots of back "Rentenversicherungs" payments.

Does anyone know if Berlitz offers full-time along with their one year commitment? I want to know before my telephone interview next week.

Does anyone know if Berlitz offers full-time along with their one year commitment? I want to know before my telephone interview next week.

I guess you are asking about contracts for teaching English at the adult centers? When I worked there 4 years ago, it was only freelance contracts for newbies. The contract teachers are selected from their more experienced freelancers (i.e. once you have worked at Berlitz for usually at least 2 years...). Berlitz will try to tell you that you can only work for them, but if you are a freelancer, you HAVE to work for more than one school - you just can't use Berlitz material for non-Berlitz clients. Good luck with your interview

Ok, I have been working for Berlitz for over 2 years. Directly responding to this, which is correct? I followed the link and understand that I should be paying the pension tax of 19%.
I am very concerned, as I have derived over 90% of my income over three years at Berlitz. Where can I find a copy of the article mentioned?

A quick summary of the facts for pay at Berlitz.

Recently they changed their pay system. Teachers who teach more than 120 hours per month (including travel time) receive 15€ per UE, with 10€ per travel unit.
Less then 120 UE, then the teacher, regardless of experience receives 13,50€ per UE with the same 10€ per travel unit. I have taught over 65 UE some weeks, and rarely have less than 35 UE in 'bad' weeks, so the 120 units is not an issue. Normally, I average 160-200 UE per month.

When I started, I received 11,76€ per UE, with the same for travel time. After my first year, this was raised to 12,50€, again the same with travel time.
Since I taught technical, or other english with material other than that from Berlitz, I recieved anywhere from a 20 to 40% premium over my base pay.
After my second year, I received another raise to 13,50 per UE, again with the same for travel, and the associated non-standard premiums.
I work primarily in companies, and am seldom in the actual language center in Köln.
As a result, I was not privvy to the sudden change in policy that took place in August, that is currently in effect (120 UE/15€ 10€ travel rule) I found this out 'by accident'.

What really frosted me was:

1. Any new teacher, regardless of experience, (this is a sick joke...Berlitz will hire any warm-body with English as a mother tongue it seems), recieves this pay-rate.
2. This occurred when Benzin prices were at their highest...In July I paid over 600€ for Benzin.
3. The additional premium for 'Non-standard' classes was eliminated.

A last note, is that here in Köln, IME, you really need to reconcile the hours you are paid with the hours you taught. Even on the daily work log I found them making "errors"; trying to reduce travel units, missing units for classes, etc. So working there is not the best...

OK, so mybe this is not so 'quick' or short of a summary. As for the experience of working at Berlitz, I will post that elsewhere...HTH...