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Q: What's the average price per hour to pay for a FT?
I'm asking for my Cafe owner friend. His cafe is in downtown Nanjing. He is a coffee fan. He bakes the coffee beans by himself, and the coffee he offers is awesome too. But very few Chinese are able to appreciate a cup of good coffee.
To boost his business, he is thinking about holding an English Corner twice a week in his cafe. Do you guys think 150 RMB per hour (plus free coffee and cocktails) is enough to hire a part time FT?
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+ The English salon will only has 6 participants who are well educated CBD white collars.They are going to be prepared about the topics. So it won't be an exhausting job. And if you think 1 VS 6 talking is too stressful, I'll join in the talk to help you too. The salon will last 2.5 hours each time, our ideal wage is 300 RMB each time. We will pay your wage in cash.
Actually it isn't a profitable project, we do it mostly for cultural exchange and people meeting together. We don't have requirements about teaching qualifications, , just free talking. So you are not going to be under teaching pressure.
The cafe is in Xin Jie Kou, convenient traffic situation,you can come here either by subway or by bus. If the English salon goes on well, we may hold it 2~4 times a week.Besides,we may hold other salons in the future,for example reading salon, law issues forum.
If anyone who's in Nanjing and interested in the position, please contact me. The wage is negotiable, we will consider about bonus ranging from 100~200 eacht time, depending on the participants' feedback. My wechat number is shenyu4018.
9 years 36 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
I would think 200-300 would be more in line. 150 is on the low side when considering its only 1 class and they have to likely use a bus/taxi or bike to get there and back.
...Few Chinese appreciate good coffee? Look at the amount of coffee shops/starbucks/coffee cafes in China sometime.
Chinese DO appreciate coffee. Maybe they don't appreciate HIS coffee? As in 不好喝。 What is the name of his coffee shop?
RiriRiri:
Go to your nearest Starbuck, and count how many people actually are drinking coffee.
Answer: none. You'll see people drinking sweet milky stuff, whatever is on the shelves, but no, you will see no coffee.
Shining_brow:
Yeah, there aren't many places I've been to that have good coffee! At best, it's mediocre (with the exception of specialised coffee places run by foreigners who know their good coffees!)
JulieShen:
Seriously ? Do you think Starbuck offers good coffee???
It tastes like crap... I had went through all over New Zealand to find good Cafe, and my best friend is a kiwi national barista champion. So I think I can tell who serves good coffee...
Englteachted:
Spider: How many of those classy upscale coffee shops actually serve instant coffee for 30rmb.
A more business like approach would be to advertise the position as 150 - 250 yuan per hour depending on skills and experience. Then negotiate a deal that suits both parties.
Yeah, 150 is low, even with the coffee and cocktails... unless you're after a drinker. Even then, 2 coffees would be about normal for a 1 hour stint, and I can't imagine too many who'd want more than that...
What are you guys talking about? 150 RMB per hour is about 25 dollars per hour. That is like an average middle income job in the US. Most part time jobs are like 10 dollars per hour in the US. I would say 150 RMB per hour is really good. Remember when you come to China, you probably have already accepted lower pay than developed western countries.
JulieShen:
Agree. I also think 150 RMB /hour isn't bad. My first job abroad working as an acupuncturist, the boss only paid me 13 dollars/hour.
pbrown22:
But this is only a one hour gig and that's it. I don't think most grown adults in America would go driving across the city just to make 20-25 dollars and then go back home after its done. And then there's prep time to top it off.
Shining_brow:
You're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
And, this will also probably surprise you, but for a good educator of English, they actually deserve good pay.
Also... and this will probably shock you, but America isn't the only other country in the world! 
(I know, shocking, isn't it!!!) In Australia, our university tutors for EAP are on about $75/hour! (yes, you read right... seventy-five dollars per hour). Current exchange rates make that at over 400Y per hour! And that's about starting pay!
You will find a teacher willing to accept it. Hell you could offer it to a student.
Englteachted:
Browse resumes in the jobs section and post ads in classifieds and jobs section.
I live in a lower Tier 2 city and hourly rates for FT start as low as 80-100 and go as high as 250 when working for someone else. If finding students yourself I've heard of anything from 150-450 per hour. So I'd say for Nanjing 150 is a bit low for a one hour gig considering travel time.
Would an English corner attract the kind of clientele that your friend is hoping to attract? 'You can lead a jackass to coffee but you can't make him drink.'
Compare what Chinese people go for in pizza - greasy Pizza Hut (where the pizza is actually not the centerpiece of their meal), or other pizza places that do not even have sauce on their pies.
To reel in the Chinese clientele requires a Chinese ambience (for face) or catering to their "tastes." I don't think an English Corner is going to solve his lack of traffic regardless of the caliber of the foreigner used as a lure.
JulieShen:
Good point, it is also a problem we want to solve. We are Chinese with overseas education/work experience, and all we want is to attract clients who respect culture and virtue.
If I lived there, and conveniently nearby, I'd take it no worries.
An hour of general conversation on whatever is topical in exchange for Y150 and a coffee and a something else sounds not too bad to me.
Say a late afternoon on Tues and Thurs....for just an hour....Hell, why not!
It's most reasonable.
And did someone above mention Starbucks? I recall they won the prize for the worst coffee in the world 4 years in a row.
But...American coffee in general....cat piss.
As a participant in a coffee shop EC, it can be over-whelming when there is only 1 foreigner and 30+ locals.
It is like a non-stop interrogation where i was asked the same questions over and over and over and over.............. 
When you get a foreign participant, sometimes the financial compensation is outweighed by the feeling of suffocation.
try and get more than one FT 
And not all foreigners like coffee
JulieShen:
Good insight.Thank you! Tonight I went to my friend Cafe and he treated me 5 cups of different flavored coffee that I can't sleep now...
I have recommended my friend to make the English Corner limited to only 6 participants, and strict restriction only open to university graduated CBD white collars.He want to upgrade the cafe cultural image rather than making money.
sorrel:
this sounds more like a class for 6 people and not an EC, which makes 150 RMB an hour very low, even with free drinks.
the problem with this is that in a coffee shop environment, other customers would see it as a 'right' to participate, unless there was a private area people could go.
I find a question sort of weird. One of the advantages of such deals is that you need to reach the agreement between the 'employer' and 'employee'. If there is a person who likes to come to the shop and drink there 'her or his cofee' (and provided this person likes to socialize of course) so this person can probbaly be happy 'just' with free cofee suply for her/him anytime she/he comes to the shop.
Most probably cofee shop will be in the city center, office area, high end residential area or something like that as otherwise I doubt it could find enough customers (actually I share the point of view that the majority of Chinese does not enjoy cofee 
).
In that respect I think it should be possible to find a proper person living, working or socializing in the neighbourhood. Anything else is then just the 'free market' negotiation.
Nevertheless saying all of this I would also like to mention another aspect. As specifed in the question the aim is to increase the clientele. For that most probably the cofee owner does not want to make just English Corner but most probably wants to arrange very popular and successful English Corner. The coffee shop owner certainly wants the people to come to the shop repeatedly and thus develop the 'habit' of coming and spreading the news among their families, friends, colleagues and acquitances.
For that you need, on top of nice environment, service and products in the shop, the good person(
who makes such English Corners very popular.
Getting the person is probably easy. Getting the good person is usually quite hard. On top of that good person usually does not come cheap (however this should not be mistaken for the false statement that high price automatically guarantee high quality 
).
On the side note I would like to add that the reference to the payroll anywhere in the world (including China) is not really relevant. What does it matter that normal bottled water price is for sake of example 2 CNY when you are terribly thirsty and the only option at the placec you currently are located is to spend 10 CNY for the same bottle? You either buy it or suffer - no other way. But the choice is always yours
