I applied to 3 international schools in Tokyo and Chiba and passed all of the interviews and actually got an offer from all of them. In their listing, they put their salary range as 280,000-350,000. I have decent enough experience in teaching and when we start negotiating the salary, I get told that everyone’s starting salary is 250,000 or something. They act as though they have no idea what I’m talking about after I bring it up when they clearly wrote it in their ad with no clauses of who are eligible for said salary but just indicated it is the salary range at their school. Just write 250,000 then with a possibility of increase every year so it’s clear what applicants are getting themselves into and know what to expect right off the bat. For those reading it seems that the range they put is the amount they are able to negotiate with you like their own personal wiggle room but most of the time, it’s even lower than that and they have a fixed entry level salary.
My husband applied to several IT companies and their ad says 4m-6m a year and when it goes down to salary negotiation, they say actually it’s only around 3million and the 4m-6m is for when you’ve been in the company for years and you get raises for good performance. So why include it in the ad in the first place or at least specify that this is attainable within a few years only and be transparent about the starting salary. I just don’t like how companies in Japan are so deceitful about this. And if you aren’t qualified enough for them to not think you are eligible for the actual salary range, why hire you in the first place only to give you the prorated salary. I ended up rejecting the offers and luckily got one that was very transparent about the salary and was willing to negotiate and actually did not include the salary in the ad at all but just stated that salary is based on experience. Have you experienced the same thing? How did it turn out?
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They do this in the U.S. also. It’s how they get applicants. They put an outrageous salary range, or claim the position is remote when it is actually in-office, in order to get people to interview in the hopes that they find somebody desperate for the position.
Name and shame. Report the ads to where you found them posted. Also leave Google, Indeed, and Glassdoor reviews.
Bait and switch technique.
Next time it happens, no need to leave the interview politely. Just walk out.
But also that is a fairly horrible salary for an actual teaching position at any school, let alone an “international” one for somebody who isn’t a new grad.
Indeed, there’s lots of lies in this market.
What you should do is to apply through the employment agents. They have salary ranges which are realistic and they get more commission if they manage to haggle for a good starting salary.
That been said, if you see any salary range, think that the most likely for a new entrant will be at the lowest end of the range.
It’s not just you. I’ve seen it everywhere.
I’ve seen position advertised at 8 or 9M per year but the breakdown is something like
5M base, 1M expected overtime, 1.2M housing allowance, 1M RSUs, 0.8M company pension plan.
There is no standard for what constitutes fair advertised compensation and companies are known to shove all sorts of benefits (that may or may not apply to you) to inflate the numbers.
Also annoying is salary ranges that are very wide, i.e. 4M to 12M which I have seen from sketchy recruiters.
I always ask when they say if I have any questions. Or if they do not ask I ask in writing. I do not go to an in person interview without everything being written down by them.
Are these listings from the actual school? Or are these listings on job-search / recruiter sites. Big difference.
that’s odd. I only apply if they are upfront with the range. if they say 10-20 I say from start my minimum is 20. Only if they accept I go to interview.
when they send the offer at the end they always try yo lowball but I stick to my guns and get what I want.
the country is short of talent and rampant inflation.
Compared to countries that do not post salary ranges at least it is something.
Not all companies are like that.
You have to just stand your ground and walk away.
My current company had advertised a range between x.9 and (x+2).5 -> Ended up with (X+2).4 that is without any benefits.
For the same reason that job seekers ~~lie about~~ ~~exaggerate~~ positively spin their skills and experience.
Many years ago my wife got a job at an import/export company. They specifically needed somebody good at English for both emails and phone calls, so she got the job offer. When she asked about salary, they in turn asked her age, checked a chart or something, and told her the salary. There was absolutely no premium for her skill, the salary was 100% based on age. The high school only grad next to her doing simple office work would get the same pay if they were the same age…