“We’ve Grown — And We’d Love to Welcome You Back”
Any other veteran teachers from “the time before” receive an email from VIPTeacher inviting you back to the platform? Love the gems it contains like “Remember the days with VIPKid? Well, guess what? We've evolved into something even bigger and better…”, “Behind all this growth is one important thing: amazing teachers like you. 💛”, and “Whether you'd like to teach regularly again or simply earn some extra income in your spare time, now is a great time to return.
Your classroom is waiting, and we'd truly love to see you back. 😊”
I had $9 base pay when things initially shut down, and my old auto-renewing contract still lists that. The email lists signing the latest contract as one of the steps to get started again, and I checked to confirm it still contains the base pay reduction to $7, which it indeed does. Sorry, a $4/hr cut to the rates from FIVE YEARS AGO is in no way “better,” and acting like you appreciate teachers by calling them “amazing” and crediting them for the company’s growth is insulting to our intelligence. If you’d “truly love to see” veteran teachers back, offer reasonable pay for 2026 instead of empty words. $14/hr is effectively more than a 35% pay reduction after factoring in US inflation. 🙄
As much as I genuinely loved teaching my regulars and developing relationships with them and their families, I am thankful for the forced shutdown. The lack of sleep was wreaking havoc on my mental health, but I think I would have had a lot of trouble stepping away from my students on my own. And now I’m self-employed and making good use of my degrees, earning an hourly rate just under three times what I was making at VIPKid (even factoring in inflation). I’ll let my contract keep auto-renewing for the possibility of a side gig in case VIPTeacher ever decides to actually appreciate their teachers, but I won’t keep my hopes up for a snowball’s chance in hell.