TEFL Salary Index: English teacher salaries by country, checked and dated

Updated 9 September 2026. Four figures on this desk have moved. Korea’s EPIK range previously read 2.1–2.8M KRW; the official salary and benefits page states that the offices of education are not hiring Level 3 and that all applicants must qualify for at least Level 2, so the floor now reads 2.35M. Taiwan’s TFETP pay and its 980-position count have been withdrawn because both official pages returned no readable content when checked on 31 August and again today. Every euro conversion on this desk has been recomputed at the European Central Bank reference rates published on 8 September 2026, replacing a mix of European Commission and older ECB rates, so the Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand euro figures have all shifted. Local-currency figures are unchanged apart from Korea and Taiwan.

Updated 23 September 2026. Three things have moved. Korea: the EPIK floor published here on 9 September as 2.35M KRW was wrong. The official salary and benefits page shows Level 2 paying 2.2M in most regions, with 2.35M the top of Level 2 rather than its bottom, so the range now reads 2.2–2.8M. Edition 4 carries the full correction. Japan: the JET 2027 application opened on 21 September 2026 and closes on 13 November 2026 at 11:59pm HST for US applicants, so the row moves from ON THE WIRE to LIVE WIRE and now carries the deadline. Both were re-read at source today. Online: the €9–22 an hour range has been removed. Preply and italki publish the commission they take, not a rate they pay, so no figure on that row traced to an official source. Every euro conversion has been recomputed at the European Central Bank reference rates published on 22 September 2026, replacing the rates of 8 September, so the Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand euro figures have all shifted. Local-currency figures are unchanged apart from Korea.

Updated 30 September 2026. France: this desk said the 2027/28 assistant applications open in November. No opening date is published anywhere, so the row and its schema now say that the last cycle opened on 3 November and that early November is a pattern rather than a promise. The signal chip moves from ON THE WIRE · NOV to ON THE WIRE · NO DATE. Korea: EPIK’s salary and benefits page was re-read today and the 2.2M to 2.8M range is confirmed, with the offices of education still not hiring Level 3. Every euro conversion has been recomputed at the European Central Bank reference rates published on 29 September 2026, replacing the rates of 22 September, so the Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand euro figures have all shifted. Local-currency figures are unchanged.

Updated 14 October 2026. Two things have moved. France: this desk said no 2027/28 opening date was published and that early November was a pattern rather than a promise. Villa Albertine published the window and it was read at source today: TAPIF 2027/28 opens on 15 October 2026 and closes on 15 February 2027. The row, its signal chip and its schema now carry those dates, and the “pattern” wording is retired. Hong Kong: the visible pay range on this desk read HK$34,060–65,875, about €3,820–7,390, which was an older scale. The Education Bureau’s own recruitment page, re-read today, gives HK$35,080 to HK$67,850 for the APSM rank, which is the figure this desk’s own structured data and the hub board have carried since 30 September. The visible row was the outlier and is corrected to HK$35,080–67,850, about €3,935–7,615, at the ECB reference rates of 29 September 2026. No other local-currency figure changed and no other euro conversion was recomputed, so every other check date on this page stands as written.

Updated 21 October 2026. France: the TAPIF window opened on 15 October as published, so the row, its signal chip and its schema move out of the future tense. The chip moves from ON THE WIRE · OPENS 15 OCT to LIVE WIRE · CLOSES 15 FEB, and the row now sorts as a destination hiring now rather than one still to open. This was a between-editions check of a window that has opened, not a full sweep: no pay figure was changed, no source was re-read and no euro conversion was recomputed, so every check date and the ECB rate date of 29 September 2026 stand exactly as written.

Updated 28 October 2026. Japan: this desk led with the US closing date of 13 November, but the first JET 2027 deadlines fall on 5 November, for the UK and for Australia at 5:00pm AEDT. The row now leads with 5 November and lists every published date. The US deadline of 13 November at 11:59pm HST was re-read today on JET Program USA, and the Irish deadline of 4 December at 23:59, by email only, on the Embassy of Japan in Ireland page. The UK, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand embassy pages refused automated reads today, so those dates are carried from our reads of 27 October (13 October for Canada) rather than re-read. Hong Kong: an older Education Bureau annex that is still online, NET_package.pdf, gives HK$25,505–62,235 a month and a HK$19,081 allowance. Those figures mix the Certificated Master rank in primary schools with the top of the secondary Graduate Master scale, at an earlier pay level, and the allowance has since been superseded. The Education Bureau’s 2026/27 primary NET recruitment page, re-read today, gives HK$35,080 to HK$67,850 a month for the APSM rank (MPS points 15 to 29) plus a special allowance of HK$20,989 a month for appointees from outside Hong Kong. The row stays on that scale and now names the allowance in place of a generic housing allowance. Korea: the EPIK salary and benefits page was re-read today and still runs 2.2M to 2.8M KRW, with Level 3 not hired and Chungbuk adding S and S+ grades up to 3.0M. Taiwan: the TFETP apply page loaded today and shows 2026/2027 recruitment on a rolling basis with no salary figure, so the row now says that instead of saying the page will not load. Every euro conversion has been recomputed at the European Central Bank reference rates published on 28 October 2026, 175.86 JPY, 1,492.35 KRW, 8.7339 HKD, 37.602 THB and 1.1133 USD to the euro, replacing the rates of 29 September 2026. Local-currency figures are unchanged.