There has been a spate of articles recently about the Spanish Social Security system. This was spurred by a recent report from the European Union saying that of all the member states, Spain will experience the sharpest rise in pension costs. In 2007 it allocated 8.4% of its GDP to pay retirees, but that figure is set to rise to 15.1% by 2060, while the EU average will be 12.6%. At present in Spain there are four tax payers for every senior citizen, but due to the aging population and low birth rate, in 2050 it apparently will shrink to two to one.

 

The Bank of Spain heated up the debate by issuing a report a few weeks ago urging the immediate reform of the system. They seem to be of the “never-waste-a-good-crisis” school, which means pushing bitter medicine through congress during hard times when people are more off-guard. The EU and the Spanish government, on the other hand, feel it would be wiser to wait for the crisis to blow over before acting.

 

In any case, change does seem to be in the wind, so different ideas are being bounced around such as encouraging people to have more children by making it easier for women to combine motherhood with work, but the articles I read gave no details about that. Other ideas sound more ominous, especially when the “f” word (“flexibility”) is used. Despite having positive connotations, this term is a common euphemism for having to make sacrifices and lowering your quality of life.

 

So the movers and shakers are speaking of “flexible pension schemes”, by which they mean you’ll have to work longer, or retire later, to be eligible for a reasonable pension. Another idea the Bank of Spain put forward, but which sounds surrealistic to me (if I understand it correctly), is that your pension will depend on your life expectancy. This seems to suggest that if you’re a hale and hearty 65-year-old, you’ll get a low pension, which will probably kill you. Perhaps this is meant to be an incentive for us to opt for a shorter, yet much more intense life; but this will probably just drive up health care costs, another conundrum on the Spanish horizon.

 

At any rate, after careful consideration of the various points of view, I would like to weigh in with a few ideas of my own. First of all, as I’ve already noted in a previous post, free lancers (autónomos) pay in much more to Social Security than businesses do; for example, as a free lancer I contribute about 250 euros monthly, whereas for doing the same work for an academy, they would pay less than half of that for me. So why not make businesses pay the same as free lancers do?, which is really only fair. I’m convinced this measure alone would go far to fatten the public coffers.

 

My next proposal is to bolster childbirth by subsidizing parenthood: the more kids someone has, the bigger the tax break the company gets. I can envisage a situation where ardent couples work overtime at improving their job prospects. Also, BOTH parents would be REQUIRED to take paternity leave, which would greatly reduce the discrimination against women. Parents would also be exempt from working the ridiculously long hours which is so common here.

 

My last proposal is to get the economy back on its feet and cut unemployment. This will take some doing, but Spain is particularly strong in renewable energy such as wind power, and in infrastructure construction such as high-speed trains, all of which fit in neatly in a world finally waking up to the reality of climate change. And for the moment at least, Spain’s finance sector is holding up well; and there are notable success stories such as Amancio Ortego’s Inditex.

 

If there are abundant good jobs available, and along with Spain’s sunny clime and mellow beaches, skilled workers will be drawn here like bees to honey. So if we can implement these measures, and just get businesses to be more flexible, I’m convinced that in no time at all Spain will enjoy a robust Social Security system without any undue sacrifice on the part of ordinary working people.

 

 

 

Many a beleaguered academy owner is out there fighting for survival in the TEFL jungle, and one of the main ways to stay competitive is to cut costs, their main expenses being advertising and teachers’ salaries. A lot of academies try to save money and gain flexibility by not hiring many full-time teachers. This is because it’s hard to fill a 25-hour contract because most classes are given at peak times: early morning, lunchtime, and late evening, which means full-time teachers tend to be underhours, especially during slow times of the year. So instead of having, say, twenty full-time teachers, many opt to have forty part-time teachers.

 

The problem for teachers is how to make ends meet when you only have part-time work. One solution is, besides the academy work, teaching some private classes. But here’s the rub: the academy is only paying half of your social security, which means if you retire here, you’ll only get a small pension, probably below the poverty level.

 

However, the amount of your pension depends on how much social security you’ve paid in the last 15 years of your working life, ages 50 to 65. So teachers don’t really have to worry about this, until you hit 50! Then you should try and pay in as much as possible. A good way to do this is to become a free lance teacher (autónomo), where you’re really hammered: I’ll just say I’m currently paying 250 euros a month.

 

However, even if you have fulltime academy work, because Spain is striving to be “business friendly”, academies don’t have to pay nearly as much social security as we do. I’ve just checked an old pay slip from when I was working fulltime at an academy and it looks like they paid about 80 euros a month for me; and I’ve just checked a more recent pay slip for part-time work and it looks like they paid 60 euros. So if you’re getting near the half-century mark and doing fulltime academy work, you may want to start doing (taxable) overtime to boost your payments.

 

Actually common wisdom has it that besides the state pension fund, it’s very smart to have a private one. Unfortunately at present I don’t have the wherewithal to spread my metaphorical eggs around, so I’m just paying into the Spanish system and praying it doesn’t go bust when I retire, which it might actually. Scary.

  

Steven Starry

 

There are a couple of other very important points to point out here. Your pension is based on the number of years you’ve worked in the system and each year is based on the total number of hours that you’ve worked. Teachers rarely rack up more than 6 months per year worked so that when they actually retire, they’ll only receive a fraction of what they otherwise might have gotten. I personally have to work up to the age of 67, NOT 65, in order to receive 100% of my pension, which will be pretty bad as it stands. So, in order to receive a worthwhile pension, you have to raise the amount you pay as an autónomo to more than 250 a month, as that will give you a minimalist pension. Also, you may have notify the social security that your are going to raise your payments at the age of 49 before you turn 50 if you want to raise it very much. You can raise it to about 850 euros which would give you a pension of 2,500 or more euros, I forget the exact numbers. The best part of it is for families because this doubles as a sort-of life insurance policy because you’re spouse will receive 50% of this as a widow and children under the age of 21 receive 25% I believe. By the way, I wrote something about this a few years ago here: http://www.madridteacher.com/articles/retirement.htm . Now, let’s just hope we can find work in order to pay into the system in the first place. Also, double check all this information long before you make any decisions.

 

By the way, I’ve checked into private pension plans via OCU’s Dinero y Derechos and they recommended at the time that none of them were worthwhile and that the best pension plan was just raising the amount you pay into social security. I’d like to hear it if anybody has anything different to add.

 

David Overton

 

Excellent article Steve. I’m always surprised at how many little treasures you have hidden about your website. And you make some excellent points. I’d forgotten about having to change your tax bracket when you’re 49.

 

However, I thought that didn’t apply to autónomos. I was looking into all this about a year ago and if I remember correctly, autónomos can opt to pay more even if they’re over 49. I’ve looked at the notes I took and have been trying to make sense of them. I believe I wrote that an autónomo can opt to put in a maximum of 1,601 euros a month, and I was told that paying in 250 euros a month as an autónomo plus working part-time in an academy, that my retirement, assuming that social security doesn’t go bust or whatever, would be about 1,600 euros a month.

Interviewer on NPR: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s our great pleasure to welcome to our program the world famous TEFL superstar, Blade of Grass.

 

Blade of Grass: Thank you everyone. It’s a great honor to be here today on this top quality radio station.

 

Int: Thank you. And congratulations on being selected for the TEFL team for the Education Olympics, which will be broadcast this evening around the world. Do you think you’re going to be coming home with gold.

 

BG: Well, I’m feeling up, I think I have a good chance, but I’m not after gold, but to be the best teacher I can. And of course, now that education is such a high-paying profession, there’s stiff competition. All the best minds go into this field now.

 

Int: Yes, recent surveys reveal that teachers are the most admired profession, along with writers, philosophers, doctors, artists, and helping professions in general.

 

BG: Yes, that is gratifying. Things have really changed for the better since the Great Shift of 2009. People all over the world basically said enough is enough to the financial-political oligarchy that was at the helm, and ran the economy into the ground. People realized that an informed, educated populace is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy and economy. People need to learn critical-thinking skills, to know when arguments appeal to the emotions or fear; to recognize false arguments such as attacking the person instead of their ideas; or giving false choices or a false dilemma; for example, you’re either with us or against us, or the only alternative to capitalism is socialism. So since this sort of critical thinking is so vital to a healthy democracy, top quality education is likewise viewed as essential.

 

Int: And do you think the high salaries that educators now command have helped that.

 

BG: It’s a excellent start, but by no means does just throwing money at a problem automatically solve it. But I have to say as an educator I’m glad that I no longer lead a precarious hand-to-mouth existence. Now I own a nice home. I can put money aside for a rainy day. I have some nice things like a carbon fiber racing bike. I don’t have to work 24/7 so I have more time to explore other interests. And of course the fact that we have free universal healthcare, excellent public education and inexpensive public transport also improve the quality of living.

 

Int: Tell me Blade of Grass, do you think that our current form of mild capitalism is the best bet in the long run.

 

BG: Absolutely. No doubt about it. The current form of capitalism is a world better than the cut-throat competition that got us into that ugly financial mess back in 2009. Businesses are no longer “too big to fail”, which encourages greater responsibility. We’re now seeing smaller local economies, which don’t require large amounts of energy, so they’re more ecological, better for the environment. And instead of encouraging Darwinist competition, the focus now is on collaboration. There’s more sense of community and belonging, so people are less stressed. They feel safer, and just happier.

 

Int: You make it sound like a panacea.

 

BG: No, of course it’s not that. We’ve still got troubles. For example, we’re still paying off the debts that were accumulated during the years of neo-liberal profligacy and greed, and still trying to clean up the environment as well. And there are still some homeless people about. In fact the other day I bumped into an ex-student of mine, who was begging! I remember he had a lazy mind and an amazing lack of curiosity, and was arrogant as they get, like the world owed him a living. He was a sort of frat boy alcoholic. Let’s see, what was his name? Oh yeah, Jorge Arbusto.

 

Int: So did you give him any money?

 

BG: Fat chance! I told him to get his butt back in school and start using some elbow grease, and pull himself up by his bootstraps!

 

Int: Weren’t you a little hard on him?

 

BG: I don’t think so. With his attitude, it’s not surprising he’s on the street. He’s just lucky he’s around now when we have good social safety nets for losers like him.

 

Int: Tell me, has becoming rich and famous changed you?

 

BG: Well, like I said, the financial well-being is gratifying, but ironically I think my period of greatest growth came during the lean times when we were at the mercy of our employers, who in turn were at the mercy of the economy. What I mean is it’s during crises when we have to rethink our beliefs. Difficult circumstances force us to get out of our boxes, consider other possibilities, find new solutions, to grow. Now I’m enjoying prosperity, but sooner or later the next crisis will come along and force me to rethink things yet again. This is life as I see it.

 

Int: Interesting. Tell me Blade of Grass, why do you use a sobriquet instead of your real name?

 

BG: Well, that trend was started by a TEFL teacher / entrepreneur in Madrid, who became famous for his radio station. Anyway, I suppose for education superstars it does lend a certain mystique. And I guess it does vaguely say something about me. I think I’m one to see the world in a grain of sand, or in a blade of grass! Then again, people used to call me “thin as a rail”, so maybe it just morphed from that.

 

Int: Oh OK, so who’s your favorite actress and actor?

 

BG: That’s hard to say, I mean I’m friends with Julia Roberts, Woody Allen, Brad Pitt, but I’m especially tight with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, both of whom are obviously top actors. Javier is just brilliant, and Penelope, besides being gorgeous, stands out for how much she’s grown artistically. I relate to that because I feel I’ve grown a lot as well, in my case in the field of education. I wasn’t a child prodigy. I guess I’m a late bloomer, getting better slowly during my whole life.

 

Int: Oh, right. So what kind of music do you like?

 

BG: That’s a toughie. There’s so much wonderful music out there, from Bach to Grant Green (a jazz guitarist). But just now I was thinking of Imagine, by John Lennon. I like it because, though it may seem naive, it has an important message. If we want to live in a better world, the first step is to imagine it. Actually I think our creative imagination is our spiritual being at work. So we first conceive the idea, then work towards it, then give birth to it; and even then it will only come about if it’s in accordance with the will of a higher power, or Spirit. At least that’s how I see it.

 

Int: Right. Well, that about wraps it up for today. So thanks for coming Blade. Good luck in the Education Olympics. And this has been, well, educational.

 

BG: Right. Thanks for having me.

It’s great rubbing elbows (or shoulders as the Brits say) with my English-teaching colleagues. We have shared experiences, think the same way, have roughly the same linguistic brain waves: the same parts of our brains light up like Christmas trees.

 

So here we all are in the insalubrious (because of secondary smoke) confines of our local watering hole, slaking our thirst after long hours of exposing students to language, clarifying meaning, and uncovering grammar, when I decide to toss out a sort-of serious question.

 

“How can we as teachers improve our lot?” Without missing a beat, they answer right back to me, “By getting out of teaching”, which was followed by general merriment. Oh well, what was I expecting?

 

Seriously though, I think the system is skewed against teachers (and for that matter against numerous other labor-intensive professions). I’m all for capitalism and the free market, but something’s not right when large segments of society are left out.

 

Nowadays a business faces fierce competition: a reputable academy offers classes for X amount, but another less reputable one undercuts it because they pay their (less qualified) teachers less. This sort of cut-throat capitalism tends to drive prices down to the detriment of qualified teachers and of our students, who settle for second-rate teaching.

 

So what’s the solution? I sometimes think that forming some sort of TEFL union in Madrid (or for all of Spain) might help. The question is, how much real power would it have to regulate the quality of teachers and get us living wages? How would we get it off the ground? I don’t have the answers.

 

I’m not one to preach doom and gloom, but sometimes the riots in Paris and Greece come to mind. Why did those people go haywire like that? OK, I’m not an expert on this, but it may be there’s a lot of pent up anger out there from this economic underclass working in labor-intensive professions or unemployed, and the victims of the inequalities of capitalism, which is becoming increasingly elitist, especially in the USA where (according to one source) 5% of the population controls 85% of the wealth. Of course resorting to violence is a huge mistake, so these people need to be empowered and brought on board.

I know I’d be happier if I could ply my trade without the feeling that if I want greater economic well-being, my main option is “getting out of teaching”.

For me the incident below where I came up with my own lead-in for a reading shows one of the best parts of being an EFL teacher: the creativity! This helps stave off teacher burnout and keeps things interesting.

 

The downside of course is that you’ll never get rich teaching English; in fact the truth is that it’s a low-paying, dead-end job, though I’d venture to say many jobs are. Also as a free-lance teacher (autónomo), and in many academies, your pay fluctuates according to how many hours you work, so holidays are periods of unemployment which you have to try and save up for. This means if you don’t play your cards right, at Christmas, Easter and August instead of letting your hair down, you may be tightening your belt. And good luck trying to move up the totem pole, that’s about as likely as snow in Madrid. Well, it does happen, but the competition is fierce for the few good positions available.

 

The other side of the coin is that TEFL teachers are normally able to find work even in fairly dark economic times. I’m certainly grateful I’ve got a job now, even living on a shoestring budget. And my experience is that most TEFL teachers are vocational, at least those who have stuck it out and been doing it for a while.

 

It’s really nice finding people who love their work. I do, yet I’d hesitate to recommend it to anybody who needs to make ends meet. In fact, I know teachers who don’t consider it “a real job”. It actually does sometimes feel more like a hobby. What you need is a sugar daddy (or a sugar momma), a partner who’s pulling in fat paychecks while you’re teaching for some extra money, the contact with people, and for fun. Yes, teaching English is fun!