I pay my DMs, and they earn it. I will admit however that there is no way they could make a living from what they make DMing for me...even though there are day my DMs make more then I do.
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I would like to hear your real life story on becoming a DM, good or bad. Did you make enough chump change to survive?
IME in foreign tropical vacation destinations, foreigners like us are not really sought after as DM's unless you perhaps speak a bazillion languages and/or look great in a bikini.
Pay: We get $300 for an OW course, which comes to about minimum wage hour wise.
I can't believe that DMs get $300 for DM'ing an OW class. That's more than the vast majority of instructors I know get. When you say it comes out to min wage... that's 36hrs in US min-wage dollars. What does a DM in Canada do for an OW course that takes 36hrs?