Massage Salary in Saskatchewan, CANADA

I started off in the spa industry, working as a P/T EMPLOYEE:

Hourly wage: $12.00/hr + tips
Hours/week: 20-25*
Monthly income: $1,200/month

*This is dependent on how busy the days were and how long the massage treatments were (1/2 hr, 1 hr, 90 mins) and there were only 2 massage therapists so we switched hours every week.


Overall opinion of SPA EMPLOYEE MASSAGE THERAPIST:

I originally took the job right after graduation mainly because I was gung-ho to be working and did not really think straight regarding the poor income that was offered. I mainly used the excuse that I was there to get experience, and then I will move on, which was a bit truthful but also because I just did not want to admit my irrational behaviour.

Benefits of working as a MT in the spa industry as an employee:

1. No clients that day? No problem, I still got paid
2. Immediate referrals from other employees
3. Laundry, rooms, linens, oils, etc. all provided
4. Professional setting (beautiful spa decor)
5. Problems with service, clients deal directly with manager
6. Discounted services (cuts, manicures, facials, etc.)

Not so great aspects of this industry:

1. Spa charges clients $60/hour, thus if:

- You're in for 7 hours @ $12/hour, your income for
that day is $84
- EXCEPT: you treated 4 1-hr clients which totals
$240 that day
- The SPA gets $156, you get only $84. That means you
made 35% of the actual income
2. Availability of discounted services (you get awesome deals
at the spa for other services but only if no one has
already booked in -- if you book in and a client calls in
later that day, you get bumped because they are full
price payers
3. If you do not have clients, you are required to do other
jobs (clean out estheticians rooms, janitorial duties, for
example -- stand outside in -25 to shovel the parking lot
(personal experience))
4. You feel like you are taken advantage of (no breaks if
client books in like crazy -- I treated up to 10 clients
one day without any breaks -- back to back -- painful!)
5. P/T employees do not get benefits because the spa is a
smaller business, not huge corporations
6. Required to sell a certain amount of products per month
(hair/face products that are not related to massage)

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