Just a factual warning for those of you want to get a PhD to teach and end up as a sessional hire.

I am not shy to tell how much I make!

After applying for tens of jobs, I finally have got a sessional position to teach a second year chemistry class (100+ students) at a Canadian university, but I am already regretting it. They only told me that I got the job, only one week before the class starts and now my days and nights are being spent on preparing the course materials, answering emails and so-called office hours with students.

I am putting close to 80 hours per week and the whole payment for beginning of Sept to End of Dec deal is $6,500 (3500 british pounds) which after tax and x,y and z it becomes close to $3,900 (2,150 british pounds). They also told me that my contract ends in December so if I want to get this job again next year, I have to apply again, submit resume, reference letters, samples of writing and journals, teaching record, etc etc etc etc....

This article tells you all about sessional or adjacent jobs in North America. Read the comments, they are more revealing.

My recommendation: DO NOT FOOL YOURSELF, move on!

Conversely, a PhD student I know (awaiting viva) has just landed this kind of job in the UK (1 year contract to replace a prof on sabbatical) and earns £36k a year, and works 9-5.

Good for him or her but I do not think the student you mentioned falls exactly within the "sessional" or "adjacent" kinds since she has a year contract and a 9-5 job!

This is very common here in Australia, the use of sessional staff to do teaching work at your level but not paying them full-time work.

The nature of work is changing, and its frustrating. The likelihood of getting something full time is rare, and tenure is the impossible unicorn.

I'm currently lecturing/running an entire unit on my own and working those exact same hours as you between preparing lesson plans, lecturing, assessment marking (social science so essays need heaps of feedback which take forever), consultations/emails etc. In the exact same situation, although I knew what it was going to be like going in.

While you do the teaching, those employed are conducting research, improving their own profiles while you struggle to make ends meet and find time to get publications/research studies out there.

You might want to consider industry as an option, or at least start thinking about moving into industry. I don't think this environment will change regarding contract work which almost equates to slave labour.

Good points awsoci, I was aware of the hours need to be spent. But the upsetting thing is that although I did applied for this teaching sessional thing in early winter (without any hope of getting it), they only decided to give the job to me one week before the course was started in september. As result of this short notice, I did not get any chance to develop the course materials and I have to do everything now while I am also a postdoc and need a lot of time to work on my research. They could have decide about who teaches this course much earlier but they do not do that. I have heard the same scenario from many other sessional instructor that you get this kind of job in a very short notice.