New Trend in Compensation Plans That Use Your Tip Money to Pay You Hourly

 It never ceases to amaze me just how far spa owners will go these days to put more money in their pockets. Employers want their cake and ice cream too--greed is a powerful motivator. Just when I thought I had seen and heard it all, now another unfair employment trend is popping up in our industry.

I will not name names here, but there is an up and coming Massage/Facial franchise that has a unique, and in my opinion, unethical way of treating their employees. The esthetician is hired on as a regular employee and they get paid an hourly--WELL KIND OF--plus they get commission on their services rendered and then they say the esthetician will receive a 100% (don't we always get a 100% of our tips????) of the tips--AGAIN KIND OF---let me explain below. Keeping reading this might be the difference in your income stream!

There is a new thing called "tip minimum" and yes if you here these words TAKE CAUTION and make sure you understand what you are signing up for before you agree to take the job! Basically, the employer tells you that you are making a guaranteed hourly whether or not you have clients or not. Great, right? That sounds outstanding--you can get paid at least something even if there are no clients, but HOLD ON!!  There is a catch. They will certainly pay you an hourly rate, but they only pay you until you hit a set dollar amount. The CATCH HERE IS--they use your tip money to help reach that set amount--so essentially they do pay you some money hourly for the set hours until you reach that dollar amount that they give you, but much of your hourly comes from your tips.

So until you reach that Holy Grail dollar amount your tips aren't actually your tips they go to help pay you your hourly rate so the SPA OWNER IS ACTUALLY MAKING MORE MONEY because they aren't having to pay you hourly 100%. It is a sketchy way of circumventing around actually paying you the full hourly that they promise you. It is more money earned for them, less they have to spend and less money for you and yet you are required to work a certain shift because you are technically an employee who is paid by the hour. They have to by law (in most states) pay you an hourly if they require you to be there for a set number of hours.

Then when you ask for a copy of your compensation plan in writing they will not give it to you. Sure they will give you a commission plan that tells you what you will make per facial or waxing service, but they will not tell you exactly how you are paid in writing. If everything is on the up and up then why do they use fast-talking and confusion tactics to reel in the best estheticians--in my opinion, there is unequivocally a reason for this. To me, it is all about making them rich and making estheticians poorer.

I am not saying you should not work for these places, but what I am saying is to be cautious and know the new industry terms for compensation plans for spas. Don't let these people rope you in without you knowing the facts and how it affects your bottom line.