Finding Better Pay as a Tutor: Is It Possible?

[eurekameh]

So I've been looking for a tutoring position and one that I've found pays $10 / hour. This seems to be way less than what I've been hearing people say the average pay is. However, the job is located in the dorm complex I'm currently living in, so I guess the school pays for my salary and the tutorees get tutored without paying anything. Is there any way I can get better pay through an individual paying me directly?

 

[bcrowell]

$10/hr is the (admittedly low) amount that we pay tutors at the school where I teach. I'm sure it's possible to get higher pay by connecting directly with tutees, but it won't be steady work. IMO getting paid by the school makes for a much better educational situation. When you're getting paid directly by the tutee, s/he will usually pressure you to do the work for him/her.

 

[member 392791]

The problem with doing it privately like previously mentioned is that often the students will only hire you when they have a test coming up, not many people can afford a tutor at $20-30/hr for an entire semester or year.

 

[moouers]

I'm going to be a tutor at my college this coming Fall, and I will also be paid about $10/hr. While the pay is low, there are also benefits. You don't have to market yourself, you don't have to worry about having students to tutor (still get paid regardless), and as bcrowell mentioned, there is less pressure to do the work for the student seeking help. Also, if you don't know the answer and there are other tutors present, the student can simply call on another tutor for help.

 

[mege]

The $10/hr from the University is reliable whereas the sometimes-more-money will be harder to come by. Also, it may be exempt from payroll taxes if it's a work-study position and you'll have a low enough income to not really worry about income taxes generally (so it truly is $10/hr).

When I tutored in the 'public' lab I made several contacts and people that asked me to tutor them (for pay) outside of the lab so I could focus on them specifically. You may want to check on your labs policies regarding this; I was lucky and my supervisor even would suggest us to students looking for individualized attention (but was very clear that this was a 1on1 activity and not via the Uni).

Finally, I would often use the time in the tutoring lab to do my own homework if we weren't busy. It wasn't guaranteed to be able to do homework, but nice when I could.

 

[Jack21222]

Sounds about standard for a university position. That's roughly what I made. The higher numbers you're hearing are probably for private tutoring rates, where you have to do your own advertising, set up appointments, etc.