Exactly. Context is key. I teach in China, and what you can make here depends on your connections and your game. People are begging me on the streets to tutor their children, and were I a younger man (as in “teaching in every available venue”) I could do far better here than I could in the US. But the Bottom Line is Cost of Living, which is quantumly lower than in America. Combine that with free housing, food allowance, and medical insurance–which are usually part of the standard package– and you have a hard-to-beat deal.

Maybe you’re not considering the lower cost of living or that many Chinese schools provide an apartment to their ESL teachers for FREE. Before you jump to conclusions, you may want to research how much it costs to live in each of these places. These wages could go farther than you think.