Hello everyone, looking for feedback on what's standard as far as pay, the spa I worked for recently closed and I went to another spa.

My old pay worked like this. $10 per hour or 47 or 48% service commission.. Whatever number was better.. Payed every 2 wks, I did also assist on the front desk, checking in/out clients, ringing clients out, answering phones etc. doing laundry, keeping retail shelves for skin care clean and organized, maintaining inventory for back bar and retail skin care products.

I was also paid 20% cash retail sales commission. This was paid when we went over my numbers which I had to keep track of, new clients, rebooks, number of facials, wax etc etc.

Where I am at now I do barely any reception tasks, or cleaning, or laundry. I put away my own laundry. I am not being paid any hourly . Strictly 48% or 49% commission for services. No services... No pay

We are getting the skin care line I worked with for retail and back bar since my clients are just having to go to ulta to buy it..

If I do a google search online of standard retail commission of estheticians I get a whole bunch of results that are confusing or old...

Is there a legal minimum to be paid if an employee has no one but sits at work? I saw mention of that on one thread I read through..

I am in nj, booth or chair rental is illegal. I want to discuss with my current boss retail compensation, I would love to continue getting 20% in cash... I would negotiate that with that I will maintain the inventory of retail and back bar.. And keep the skin care retail shelving clean and organized, and promo materials up to date.

Before I ask for this or begin to negotiate, I am looking for any info on what is fair.. If anyone has actual sources for me to referrence and show my boss, if I need to, that would be great, also I am very interested in everyone's personal experience in regard to all of this. I have been an esthetician for 6 yrs and have a good retail sales history.

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 I just moved to AZ and am getting job offers for commission only? I still need to investigate and see if I have to be on site when we have no clients or can I just be on call? I will get more details tomorrow. I will be happy to share with you what the whole offer is after my meeting. Personally, I don't think I am in love with the idea of being an employee and not having an hourly wage to fall back on in slow times... 

Thank you for replying Denise. I agree that being on site without any base salary is concerning, being at work, making no money. I will say that being there does give you the opportunity to have add on services and walk ins. Being on call sometimes can be tough with that because a client does not want to wait, I am interested to hear what the exact terms of compensation you are offered.

if you do not mind me asking. how long have you been an esthetician? which state were you previously in and what compensation was given at your previous place of work?

Do yourself a favor

Forget the word "Fair" exists.  It is a subjective term -- what is fair to someone else may seem grossly unfair to  you. You will drive yourself crazy if you care about what other people make

Decide what your time and effort is worth  -- only you can decide that and be happy with your decision -- and find someone willing to pay you that amount or more.  If you can't find a job, then maybe your expectations are out of whack with the market.  If everyone you interview with offers you a job, then you still might be out of whack but the wrong way.

Being on straight commission is great when you are busy, but sucks when you are slow.  In NJ, so long as your tips and commissions = minimum wage for the state ($8.35 I think it is...) then your employer is complying with the law.

Law is not being complied with then, we do not clock in. My time for dealing with the retail is worth more than I am being told I get. They are saying the retail commission works like this. You have to sell 100 per wk and you get 10% at the end of the month ... So for example, week one of the month you sell 200, week two you sell 80, week three you sell 130 and week four you sell 40... That's 450 for the month... But you only get commission on 330 of that...

I put the order together, set it up on the shelves, stamped all the reward cards....I need to negotiate something, maybe fair is the wrong word, maybe I should say reasonable is what I am looking for, to be paid my worth..
I was trying to get a feel for what is standard, but I am beginning to think there is not a standard or a pay scale that is commonly followed and considered reasonable for the employer and the employee

there is no standard.  And in some spas/salons, compensation is not even consistent between technicians, based on seniority/negotiation, what have you.

If you are an employee, then your employer can "make" you do whatever they want to during y our working hours -- including putting together orders, stocking shelves and putting price stickers on the product.

You should be clocking in or have some form of record of your time worked -- that is a state regulation unless they pay you or calculate your pay based on an 8 hour day or 40 hour week

Again, if they are not paying you an hourly rate, then it is a little less concrete about keeping track of your hours, unless you are claiming you are working overtime -- which in NJ is 40 h ours a week, not 8 in a day.

I have no problem with NOT paying you a commission on weeks you dont make the goal.  We do something similar at our spa -- your commission on services varies from 10 -20% based on whether or not you hit your retail sales goal or how far short of it you are.  We do pay an hourly rate on top of all commissions and tips, so no one ever earns less than the legal requirement, but it is up to us to make as much $$ as we want/can

33% commission, 10% on retail-- I work for a franchise spa so upgrades and memberships increase pay-- an esty for nearly 20 years doing pretty good rebooking/requests --I average with tips about $45/client about 15-20 clients/week --my shifts total to about 24-30 hours. I can't work more than I do or my hands will fall off.  Still love it. (Have a couple of side gigs to supplement)  I could possibly do better elsewhere but I'm enjoying the fact I don't have to market myself; I just come in and do my craft.

Betty thank you for the reply, 10% commission, is that pending you sell a certain percentage of your services for the month? Or is there a minimum for the wk in order for you to get commission or is it just 10% of what you sell you get?

Do you get commission on product repurchases? For instance if a client buys something after they have had a facial that day, and then comes in just to restock on her product, do you get commission for that?

Have you ever heard of such a thing as having a $100 a wk minimum to get paid retail commission? Example: week one you sell 200, week two you sell 70, week three you sell 150, and week four you sell 58... That's 478 total for the month...

But weeks two and four you sold under 100, for those weeks you sold 128... So no commission is paid on that.... Has anyone heard of that kind of system?

Ive heard of it because you brought it up, but I've seen similar situations.

I once worked as a manager, and I had to hit BOTH my service revenue goals for the location AND the retail goals to get my bonus. Hitting a goal every week is different than hitting a monthly goal.

 I have not heard of your specific weekly minimum goal, but I dont see anything wrong with it.

At my spa, replenishment purchases dont count towards meeting my retail $ / service $ goal for the higher service commission, but we do get paid 10% on all retail sales.

It really does not matter what the goals are, so long as they are aligned.

For instance, I get 10% service commission if I sell products totalling less than 90% of my service revenue.  But this is on all sales (minus replenishment).  So a walk-in who buys a necklace that I showed her counts toward my goal.  I get 15% service commission if I am between 90% and 99% and 20% service commission if I am 100%+.

Our facials are around $150, so that 10% difference in commission potential = $15 per service

Our spas average retail sales ticket is also very close to $150, so I stand to make on average $15 per customer (either service or walk in)

So my incentives to sell products to my service customers are proportional to dealing with a walk-in customer, and it is much easier to sell $150 in product to someone who was just on my treatment table.

That's a good question.  I don't get commission if they restock without my assistance.  I know this only because I get a report of what I've accomplished the previous week and I've never seen a "restocking retail sale".  Whether  I sell 1 item or 10 items, 10% is the rate for all.  I've never heard of "no commission" if you don't meet the $100 goal.  You should be paid for what you accomplish no matter how small.  The only way I'd possibly agree to that is if they paid me automatically for clients who restock. There's incentive for front desk spa associates to pre and post sell where I work.  Clients hold tight to their pocketbooks, yet they want something they value. WE have to educate them on the "value".  

Again, I'm at a franchise spa and they basically work like on-going Groupon.  Retail sales so far for me have been just under 10% of services.  We are dealing with first time spa visitors, people who received gift cards and people who think a one time visit will cure everything.  It's a different approach to roping in the "ideal" client, but once you do, you're in a pretty good place.

You should be paid for what you accomplish no matter how small. 

Then why have goals at all?  If you get rewarded regardless of the degree of your outcome then you de-value good performance.

if they paid me automatically for clients who restock

We do get paid full commission on replenishment purchases, but those purchases do not count toward meeting the sales to service goal of 100% retail sales to service $$.

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