ESL Teachers Getting Short End of the Stick

Excerpts from
http://jimmyesl.com/esl-industry-2/esl-teachers-getting-short-end-of-the-stick/

James Soller
February 28, 2014

Anyone that has taught English as a second language at a for profit school understands that the  ESL industry in the United States is highly unregulated, unfair and cutthroat in regards to the treatment of teachers. Despite a bear economy, ESL schools, such as Kaplan [see story below about how Kaplan, NYC recently unionized!], Intrax, Berlitz not only remain profitable, but continue to grow. In fact, the ESL industry in the United States has been booming during the past couple of decades.   Each year thousands of students from around the globe pour into the United States to study at ESL institutes with the hope of increasing their own job prospects back home or getting accepted into an American university.

Unfortunately, ESL teachers throughout the United States are seeing their wages stay the same or even decrease in many instances despite a record number of students and growth in the ESL industry. The vast majority of ESL teachers working at private institutes  are technically employed as ‘part-time’ workers with hourly wages that have stayed the same since the early 2000’s. In addition, it is rare for an ESL institute to offer its teachers health insurance and job security is shaky at best.

Why do ESL teachers get such a short end of the stick? There are a few reasons.

[One] reason is that ESL institutes are great at strategically hiring middle management and lower management staff that are promised bonuses if they can cut corners and increase profit. Well, it is easy to figure out that the easiest way to increase profit in any industry is to cut worker’s pay and deny benefits.

The bottom line is that things need to change!