Published methodology · open to scrutiny
How we verify
Pay records show the date their source was checked and what the check found. A figure rests on one of seven bases — advertised, advertised non-hourly, asking, community-reported, scenario, estimated or not published — and those bases are never averaged together. Corrections: email support@plainchalk.com.
The seven pay bases
Every listing on this site states which of these seven bases its pay figure rests on. The bases are never averaged together. Internal estimates and source scenarios are withheld from wage displays and comparisons.
Advertised
The operator publishes the rate, its unit, and who gets it — for example, "$18/hour" for English, ELL and reading sessions on Littera Education's own tutor page. This is the strongest basis: the number came from the platform itself.
Advertised non-hourly
The operator publishes the figure itself, but not per hour — a monthly band, a rate per 25 minute class, or a yearly salary. We record pay in the unit it is paid in, and we never convert it into an hourly rate, because a rate per minute is not an hourly figure; converting one would invent a number that does not exist. Cambly is the clearest case: it pays USD 0.17 per minute of live chat, and USD 10.20 is only what a fully booked, continuous hour would total.
Asking
Tutor-set prices the platform publishes. Preply's teach page, for instance, states that "English tutors charge $15–25 per hour" — that is a typical asking band, not take-home and not a cap.
Community-reported
A rate reported by teachers or a dated third-party write-up, not by the operator. A figure on the employer's own page and a figure on a review site or forum are fundamentally different things, and we label them differently. Each report states who reported it and when, and it is kept separate from figures the operator publishes. Seen a real rate yourself? Report what you were paid.
Scenario
A modelled example the source publishes — for instance, a platform's “earn up to USD X if you teach Y hours a week”. A ceiling like "earn up to $X" is marketing, not a rate: it assumes peak hours, top tier and continuous bookings. The modelled assumptions are stated, and it is not a published wage.
Estimated
An older internal planning figure, not a rate the operator publishes. We retain these figures privately for the correction history and withhold them from public wage displays, filters and earnings calculations. An after-commission calculation is different: it uses a published rate and an explicit fee, and remains before tax and expenses.
Not published
The employer publishes no rate for this role on its public pages. We say “Pay given when you apply” instead of estimating: guessing an unannounced number would mislead teachers into planning on wages the employer never offered. Silence is an honest fact, and the listing stays on the board labelled “Pay given when you apply”.
On a card, the figure leads with the name of its basis, and any after-commission number is explicitly labelled as an estimate. Sliding commissions are stored as a range — a midpoint is not a published fee. Unknowns — an unpublished commission, an unstated requirement, an uncertain hiring status — stay marked unknown. See every programme's evidence.
Non-hourly and non-dollar rates
Some platforms publish a rate per month, per class, or in a currency other than US dollars. When that happens, the figure is shown as published on the listing's own terms — for example, "₴15,000–30,000 a month" or "$6.30 per 25-minute class" — and it is kept out of hourly, US-dollar comparisons. We record pay in the unit it is actually paid in and never convert between units. We never convert a published figure into another currency or unit and call it advertised.
Source dates, not automatic updates
Pay records show when we checked their source and what we found — for example, "checked 16 Sep 2026." We check sources by hand, and every Monday an automated recheck opens every listing’s source and apply link; a listing whose page has closed comes off the board. Updating a page does not mean we have checked the employer’s source again, and a source-check date is not proof that a vacancy is still open.
Requirement tags — degree, certificate, experience and native-speaker policy — are set from each platform's own application pages and tutor terms, not from review sites or press releases. Every tag points to the exact wording it relied on. Ambiguous wording stays labelled ambiguous.
Dead application pages
When a link check finds that a programme's application page is unreachable or the employer's job board lists nothing open, the listing shows a dated notice instead of a link — for example, "We could not reach an application page when we checked on 16 Sep 2026. Check the programme's own site before applying." The notice carries the date of the check so you can judge how fresh it is.
Ended programmes stay on the record
When a programme stops hiring or shuts down, its listing stays on the board marked as ended rather than being deleted. The pay figures, requirement tags, and source dates remain visible. Removing a programme from the record would erase the evidence that it existed and what it paid, so ended listings are kept for transparency.
What appears on the job board
The board includes specific roles and employer application programmes. A published record is not necessarily an open vacancy. Each record states its application status, source and check date.
- 642 published board records: 528 have evidence of accepting applications, 73 have an unconfirmed application status and 41 are recorded as not hiring. Check the dated evidence before applying.
- 131 records held for review: missing public sources, unclear subjects or unconfirmed fully online delivery can prevent publication.
- 223 source records not listed: these include duplicate records, in person work, unrelated subjects and work outside live teaching.
Published pay keeps the source currency, paid unit and conditions. Some records have no published rate. Estimated wages are withheld. The board total is separate from the programme count in the pay directory below.
Pay directory coverage
57 programmes in the pay directory. These are employer and marketplace records, not a count of open vacancies. Each source and application check retains its own date.
- Programme status: 47 marked active, 8 limited and 2 ended. Limited may mean restricted intake or an unavailable application route. These labels are not fresh vacancy checks.
- Pay records: 11 advertised hourly rates, 3 advertised rates in other units, 1 published asking range and 1 teacher-reported range.
- Figures withheld: 25 records retain old internal estimates, 0 contain source scenarios and 16 have no published range. Internal estimates and scenarios do not appear as wages on cards or in pay comparisons.
Read the pay research for the separate groups, or open the source register to see the evidence behind each programme. Unknown requirements stay unknown and are excluded from filters that promise a particular qualification policy.
What we don't do
- No invented data. No rate is interpolated or passed off as published. Every displayed figure names its basis. Internal estimates are withheld. If a figure can't be traced to one of the seven bases above, it doesn't appear.
- No scraped competitor content. "Top 10" roundtables and affiliate listicles are not sources. We go to the platform's own pages, and when those are silent, we report the silence.
- No community claims presented as fact. Forum threads can be a lead, never a citation. Teacher reports are published as reports — dated, counted, and kept separate from operator-published data.
- Free for teachers. No teacher ever pays to see a listing, search jobs, or read our pay records. Directory submissions are free today. Any future paid placement will be labelled Sponsored. Payment may buy that placement, but cannot change a pay figure, eligibility, source dates or our review decision.
How to tell us we are wrong
If a number on this site doesn't match what you see on an employer's own page, or if an application link has changed, email us at support@plainchalk.com. Tell us the programme name, the page you looked at, and what you found. Corrections are checked against the source and either updated or explained on the record.
Provenance
We keep an internal version history of data and page changes. Public source links and check dates appear in the source register; the changes page records published programme updates. Source dates change only after a new check, not simply because a page was rebuilt.
If a figure on this site can't be traced through the bases above, tell us and it gets corrected or removed.