Salary of a Beauty Therapist

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I can understand the constraints on the amount you can pay in wages in a new salon however a good worker is worth their weight in gold. If you eventually pay an employee their worth you will see your business profit and you will be on the path to a very healthy client base happy employees=happy customers=returning, loyal customers.

I would not return to a salon where I felt the staff were being exploited and I feel earning the minimum wage and being asked to do up to 7 massages a day at £50 a pop is slave labour. I have visited a salon where the girl doing my massage said I was her 7th of the day and that she felt trapped in a contract at the salon- I could not relax and tipped her over the odds, but we should not have to rely on tips. Just because that is the "industry standard" it should not remain that way. I would guess silly hours and bad pay is one of the reasons that the turn over of staff in many salons is so high. How can therapists be asked to give so much physically and emotionally (a caring treatment) to the client if they are stressed about how to pay their bills or getting enough sleep before their next shift? This is why if I did ever work in a salon again I would look for one where the owner is a therapist as then they have some idea of the work a beauty therapist does!
- Couldn't agree more with this last sentence hun!

Hi,
I'm a salon owner, I agree completely with what you said about happy staff = happy salon etc. I think if you give respect to employees you'll get respect as an employer and if you show you graft as hard as they do that inspires them to work hard and enjoy their work too. I get them lunch on the odd day about once a fortnight, I take them out for tea after work sometimes & I think things like this this shows I appreciate their work - they know they come first. If you're a dictator your staff won't be happy. I pay a decent wage to my beautician (she is new), not a massive hourly rate but a fair bit over min wage, then I pay a 5 % commission monthly at the moment and thats on sales & services. I also agree with what the guy said too, in the way that; it is a nice job to have, you get a lot of treatments done - our salon does everything hair, beauty, nails, tanning, sunbeds, botox... so my staff love having lots of treatments done and i feel this mounts up to quite a lot if you totted it up. You are in a safe, warm environment -you're not out in the rain or wind on a building site or roof somewhere getting blown about etc, you get to meet new people and its an interesting job to have not to mention doing treatments you enjoy doing and the pride you get out of doing a good job and making someone happy - its rewarding! I know its hard work physically -believe me, I work hard just as the staff do with 10 hours days, no proper lunch breaks some days, I get no bloody wages half the time (still a fairly new business - 18mths) but I do it because I love it.. as everyone in the industry should love what they do. I go to the same spa everytime I really want to treat myself (about twice a year lol) because I love it there, then I saw they were advertising for staff so I started talking to the girl doing my treatments and she said its about £7 per hour. Now, this spa do charge a great deal for their treatments - I thought they must be on a commision thing too.. But my first thought was bloody hell, they work so hard massaging all day long - especially in a posh spa, they ain't gonna be doing many brow waxes and lash tints to break it up! But I assume their overheads would be massive on the building too? So from a business point of view, and with a lot of therapists around wanting work - I suppose they can pay that :S I suppose it depends on what kind of beauty salon it is, what kind of treatments and clientele the salon has and whats expected of the therapist - I can imagine there's a massive range of salaries out there... Xx
 
Having read through this thread with great interest, I can see both sides :hug: BUT I think it's a crying shame that decent, skilled, experienced therapists of whatever type are so often working for so little .....

It would be interesting to hear from anyone out there who is actually earning a decent living! There MUST be a SOME, but I suspect they are working for themselves eg homebased or worn to a frazzle heaving their kits around mobile and with a large client base?!? :eek:
 
i live in milton keynes and i only qualified just under a year ago and im being paid £5.77 per hour with 10% commission on sales and 5% commission on treatments.
 
Hi, I am starting college in september and have looked at jobs advertised where I live just to get an idea of wages and they were all above £6.50 an hour they tended to be £7 an hour and the salon where I have my hair done are advertising for level 2 qualified therapists and they pay £17000 a year plus 10% commission.
 
I have just qualified in level 3 and went to a couple of interviews. At the first one I was offered the job to work for free ,till I get some experience.:mad: The other one offered minimum wage. I am only looking for part-time job at the moment, as I have a 3day job paid really well.
I could honestly not look for a full-time beauty job because I can't imagine how I would survive on that amount of money.
 
I have just qualified in level 3 and went to a couple of interviews. At the first one I was offered the job to work for free ,till I get some experience.:mad: The other one offered minimum wage. I am only looking for part-time job at the moment, as I have a 3day job paid really well.
I could honestly not look for a full-time beauty job because I can't imagine how I would survive on that amount of money.

Me too. It's one thing being happy in your work but you've got to pay the bills. It's crazy that people who've done so much training can get paid so little, particularly in nice spas which charge top dollar for treatments. If you factor in things like the cost of childcare it's a wonder anyone survives at all! Is it just because there's no shortage of therapists do you think?

I work full time and run my beauty business part time. When I get a house I'd love a home salon, but even then I don't know if I'd make enough to cover my bills x
 
Hi,

Its not all bad we pay our Therapists quite a lot more than £6.25 + commsion
 
To be honest reading through all the comments as someone who is just about to start out in this industry its abit depressing:cry:.
Is it really as bad as people are making it out to be???
 
I agree once you have found great staff it is important to pay a respectable salary and treat them well.

It is even worse in the States where the minimum wage is frightening and because it is a tipped based industry you can actually get away with paying something like $2.45 (CIRCA £1.60) an hour as the tips count as salary.:eek:
 

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