When I was in massage school I would have given anything for someone to give me a straight answer about what kind of job opportunities were actually out there and more importantly, what kind of money I could make. In typical massage school fashion I got the "The possibilities are endless" and "You can make whatever you choose to make." While both of these are nice thoughts in broad cosmic way, neither of them gave me what I really wanted: the truth.
Through a series of odd circumstances I have worked in almost every aspect of this industry and can now answer some of those questions. Please realize that my experiences are unique to my circumstances and this article is only meant to give general ideas.
Cruise Ship
Like many doe eyed teenagers entering massage school, I had dreams of working on a cruise ship and seeing the world. Unlike many of those people, I actually went through with it. This was about 5 years ago and things may be (and hopefully are) different now, but here is my experience.
I was offered a position with a big spa cruise ship company several months before I graduated from school. Because this was my first job in the industry I didn't really care what I was going to be making, I just wanted the experience. After I graduated and passed my national exam I was given a start date. Be in England for training on September 15. Oh and by the way, buy your own ticket here and bring plenty of money because it's really expensive to be here for the possible 2-6 weeks before we place you on a ship. I started my new job $2000 in the hole.
On the actual ship I was only paid per treatment. You work from 8am to 8pm doing treatments and then from 8pm to 10pm cleaning the spa and prepping for the next day. If you subtract your 2 hour lunches and your 1 day off a week it turns out to be about 72 hours a week. If you work for the international ships (like I did) and not the US ships (like the ones in Hawaii) they do not have to comply with US labor laws and you do not get paid overtime for the incredible amount of hours you put in.
On an average day I would do 8 massages. I got $7 per massage plus on average a $10 tip. If you sold product (which was THE most important thing to them) you got something like 5%. I am not a salesperson so this did not matter to me. Though I was lectured daily by the Spa Director because you HAVE to try and sell to every client and you HAVE to hit your sales quota. It's something unreal like $300/day. So let's do the math. $17 x 8 treatments = $136/day x 6 days = $816/week. Divide that by 72 hours and it works out to be a little over $11/hour. Plus you have no rent and free food. And by the way, it will take you several months to physically and mentally recover from this adventure. I almost quit the industry.
Resorts
Many resorts are seasonal. Because I was young and unattached, I could move at the drop of a hat so this worked out well for me. In the winter I would work at a big ski resort and in the summer I would go to a big golf and spa resort or try out whatever random massage job happened to be available at the time.
Percentage
Many places choose to pay percentages because it means that they only have to pay you when you are making money for them. The up side to this method is that when you are working, you usually get a really good rate. I would say that I earned anywhere from $50-$75/hr (this include percentage and tip) when I was paid this way. (These resorts usually charge $125+ for an hour massage. The earning potential in a day spa would be far less) the down side is that you will not always have work. I would have a $400 day and then sometimes not work for several days. In the case of ski resorts you have about 2-3 months where you make lots of money and the rest of the time you make nothing. This is fine if you learn how to budget. Many feel that they make so much during the busy time that it justifies the nothing they make in the slow time. My twice monthly paychecks ranged from $200 to $2000. In rare cases I have heard of therapists that find resorts that are busy year round and they make insane amounts of money. I have never worked at such a place and that scenario is not common.
The other thing you have to consider with this method is whether you are an employee or an independent contractor. I preferred being an employee because they take your taxes out for you and offer some benefits. Independent contractors have to set aside money from every paycheck for taxes and usually have no benefits.
Hourly + Tip
When I first took a resort job that paid $8/hr plus tip I wasn't really impressed with the fact that I was giving a service that they were charging $150 for and I was only getting $8. I soon changed my mind when I realized that I was getting paid $8/hr when I was sitting on my butt and an average of $28/hr when I was doing treatments. (There was an automatic $20 gratuity on every treatment and clients had the option of adding more) This was the most I ever made in 6 months (around $22,000) and I had steady paychecks. I must add that I was working there during the busy summer months and probably would not have done nearly so well in the winter.
Day Spas
There are so many factors in how much you can make at a day spa. If you build a clientele and are fairly busy you can make an average of $20/hr. In my area the average is about $15/hr with some therapists making a lot more, some a lot less. With resorts so close to me I never had to explore this avenue
Medical Spa
The average medical spa wage varies greatly. When I worked at a medical spa I had 5 years of experience and was a massage therapist, esthetician and laser technician. I made $40,000/yr plus tips. This is a highly unusual scenario. Most medical spas pay about the same as day spas unless you have some advanced training.
Chiropractic
Most chiropractors I've talked to pay around $11/hr plus tips. You usually have to do some office work if you don't have clients. I worked for a chiropractor for a short time and liked it. For me it just didn't compare to the money and the atmosphere of a resort spa but many therapists like to work in a more casual, clinical setting.
Spa Management
As an assistant spa director at a big hotel I made $25,000/yr with the option of doing treatments on top of that for extra income. I never had the time. As a spa director I made $40,000/yr. I've seen spa directors make anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000/yr. In my opinion no amount of money is worth the stress involved in running a multi-million dollar spa and managing 20+ employees. I went back to being a therapist.
Massage Schools
I worked at a massage school after I had been in the industry for a couple of years. My arms needed a break and I thought it would be a great refresher course. I made about $20/hr and I enjoyed my job. Ultimately I missed working in the actual field. I also found it frustrating that schools in general omit certain truths so as not to discourage you from spending the $12,000 on tuition. I will discuss those truths in a later article.
Self Employed
Its lots of hard work and not that much money when you consider rent, products, marketing, etc. but you make your own schedule and you don't have to answer to anyone. If you work really hard and can build up a steady client base, it's well worth it. It is impossible to estimate earnings on this. It depends on how much you charge, what your expenses are and how hard you're willing to work to get clients. This has by far been the best option for me.
I hope this has given you a good look at the options that are out there. This is a tough industry to work in. You have to work hard to get licensed and even harder to get the good jobs. I saw so many people go to school thinking that as soon as they graduated there would be employers lining up with offers and clients.
No comments:
Post a Comment