Kaplan Employee Reviews about "low pay"

Cons

The pay is very low relative to the level of teaching quality expected by Kaplan. You get rated by your students, and Kaplan expects you to get very high ratings. I get $19 per hour for teaching or tutoring (i.e., for face-to-face contact time with students), $12 per hour for proctoring a practice exam, $15 per hour for corresponding with students, and minimum wage for prepping for tutoring and classroom sessions. Prepping is the bulk of my hours. Kaplan requires you to track time worked in 5 minute increments so if you spend 5 minutes responding to a student via e-mail you earn .08 * $15, despite the disruption to your day. My commutes to teaching venues are long. Classes typically start at 5:30 pm or 6:30 pm weeknights. This is rush hour, so I need to allow 1 to 1 1/4 hour to get to the venue on time, and then 1/2 hour to get home once the class ends. So I might be commuting 1 3/4 hours round trip for a 2 1/2 or 3 hour class that pays $19 per hour if I am teaching or $12 per hour if I am proctoring a practice exam. In addition to low pay and long commutes, Kaplan requires you to provide your own electronic devices to do the job but provides no compensation. You are an hourly Kaplan employee but need to use your own computer, phone, internet service, and printer to access teaching materials, send and receive e-mail, and meet with your manager or mentor on Skype or Google Hangouts. (Kaplan does allow you to expense office supplies such as white board markers.) Finally, to get hired, I had to sign a non-compete agreement saying I would not work for a Kaplan competitor or offer my own test prep services for a period of one year after separation from Kaplan.

Cons

Lack of investment, tho organisation adopts a short term gain as opposed to a long term vision. Bonus scheme is nothing more than an annual company joke, no transparency at all. Kaplan lost a lot of senior talent to its main rival BPP. Their replacements are ineffective and have often been appointed due to to internal relationships rather than capability to do the job. Kaplan pay a very poor basic salary in comparison to their competitors and also the knowledge of their employees. Often promises are made and

Cons

The pay a Kaplan is much lower than industry standards and their employment practices are unfair if not illegal. One of the main reasons I left is how they wanted to pit me against the members of the team I was leading. They would promise merit increases based on performance but would only allow a 1 to 2 percent increase based on the popularity of the instructor. Good instructors that were unpopular would be passed over. I applied for two promotions for which I was highly qualified and was never granted an interview or an explanation as to why outside people were hired. Finally they refused to pay instructors for work such as grading tests and papers.

Cons

I've hardly ever worked less than a 60-hour week. Many people work when they're on vacation. Holidays are basically days without meetings when you can work without interruption and catch up. The pay is about 15%–20% less than market for the same skill set.

Cons

The pay is horrible compared to how much you can earn teaching or tutoring on your own. They should do something about this.

Cons

This is a terrible place to work. The leadership has no idea what they are doing. They constantly jump back and forth between poorly thought out ideas looking for the silver bullet that will save the company. It won't happen. At least not with the current leadership. The pay sucks and they don't respect their employees to have an honest conversation about comp. They just give the company line that 'we'll talk next March during your yearly review'.

Cons

The hours will absolutely kill you if you work in a busy center, unless you drink the Kool Aid early and don't look back. Because test preparation is often cyclical and tied to specific test dates, there are times of year when a seven day work week is de rigueur, and I have had many weeks where I put in forty hours by Wednesday. Hours can be somewhat flexible, but that's hardly relevant when you never get time off, even on weekends. This can last for months with little to no relief, as Kaplan is always understaffed. Burnout is common and open positions take months to fill because the pay is really not competitive with similar jobs. Very few people working in the home office have ever worked in the field and have little to no experience working with customers or understanding their needs or wants. Major initiatives are launched with no field testing or input. Kaplan does everything IT related inhouse, which is a disaster, and employees spend a lot of time fighting the technical systems that are supposed to help them do their jobs.

Cons

The pay is lower compared to the market and the requirements of late evening meetings is a hassle

Cons

The pay is not comparable to the same role in other organizations; much lower.

Cons

Although you'll be praised for you work, you won't be compensated for it. Although you can learn a lot from your co-workers, Kaplan isn't enthusiastic to fund out-of-office education relevant to your career, and things you learn don't necessarily translate into opportunities for advancement and career growth. Promotions are slow-coming (generally only awarded after many years) and the pay is very low. Expectations are generally very high and many employees at all levels are expected to work long hours with no comp time, overtime, or compensation of any sort, although they will generally be thanked verbally and with company celebrations.