To really know the ESL teaching situation, you have be on the ground in a country.

Buenos Aires craigslist Education page is filled with appeals for teachers. It looks like an active market.

But the ads are all by a handful of agents who post continually, apparently clawing the air for scraps: short time tourists looking for traveling money, or exchange students.

They post exactly the same ads for the same jobs week after week.

A closer look at the jobs shows that they are for 1-1/2 to 3 hours a week each. The jobs offered by agents offer between 7-8 USD an hour in other words. Do the currency conversion.

For example -- One job now offers $100. That means 100 Argentine pesos. The conversion rate is currently 14.37 to the US dollar. That means they are offering 6.95 USD an hour.

http://buenosaires.craigslist.org/edu/5555466741.html?lang=en&cc=us

The ad says you must commit to at least 15 hours a week, which at first is exactly what an ESL teacher wants but...

This is less than minimum wage in Europe or America although the cost of living of Buenos Aires is easily comparable. For example -- a cup of coffee in a cafe: 2.50 USD. A bed in a dormitory in a hostel will cost about 11.00 USD.

All of these jobs, even the private ones, require that you travel from one of these jobs to another to the client's place in a big, depressing city. When you add travel time, at least a hour round-trip, the wages decline to WTF level. It is physically impossible to work an eight-hour day even at these wages under these conditions.

Then it becomes clear why they same few agents are posting the same ads every week.