My Old Seven-Figure Income

Bear in mind, I was paid in cash, the largest denomination of currency being a 10,000 won bill.

On the last day of each month, my co-workers (including DW) and I would turn to the financial section of The Korea Herald, a daily English-language newspaper, and clip the foreign currency exchange rates. At the top of the list was the American dollar, the figure that we used to calculate our pay.

The rate was a day old, so on November 30, 1997, we used the rate that was published from November 29. The basic cash rate for that date was 1,163.8 won for every American dollar.

We used the American dollar because our contract was a fixed monthly wage, in USD. It wasn't a lot, even for 1997, but considering that housing and all utilities except phone were covered, we had precious few expenses. DW and I could typically send all of our base salary home and live off of any overtime that we worked.

And we also taught privately. Some months, that would double our income.

But it was nice to do the calculations at the end of the month, based on the rate in the Herald, and see that seven-figure value on the bottom line, after taxes (which was only 5 percent!).

Over this weekend, DW and I were cleaning through old records and file folders, and I came across a folded piece of paper with a newspaper clipping: it was this old pay statement. It brought back a flood of memories for when we taught English at a private institute in Chŏnju, South Korea.

The calculations were based on my regular monthly salary, plus four Saturdays, on which I taught supplemental classes at a high school near Jeonju University, less income tax. I would have made these calculations, filled out the form, attached the clipping, and given it to the secretaries in the morning. By the end of the day, the other teachers and I would receive envelopes that were stuffed with cash.

As I've said, the largest denomination was a 10,000 won note. For this pay, I would have received 195 paper notes, and a few coins. It wasn't something that I could easily fit into a pocket but it was always cool, I thought, to literally carry a wad of cash around.

Another sobering memory was that a month later, on the last day of December, 1997, the director of our institute, instead of delivering our pay, told my fellow teachers and me that he couldn't pay us, that he was closing up shop. We were at the peak of the East Asian economic collapse, and he was bankrupt.

It was a good gig while it lasted. Living in South Korea, teaching English, raking in a seven-figure monthly income.