Dysfunction Junction Blog

or is it?  I have been asked on occasion how much Massage Therapists get paid now that the cost of a spa treatment is typically around $130-150.  Some places, it is as high as $190 for a 60-minute session.  There are the Massage Envy and Element centers, and that’s a whole different story.

Most high-end spas hire therapists as part-time employees.  Sounds okay so far.  Here’s how that looks – the therapist is expected to be on the schedule for five days a week, eight hours a day.  Part-time you say?  The reason it qualifies as part-time is the therapist will not be working that entire time.  At one spa where I work, I call in the night before to see if I have any appointments the following day.  The next morning or afternoon (depending on the shift), I call in again to see if an appointment has been booked.  I am then required to call in every hour (at least three times) to see if I need to come in to work. If I don’t have an appointment the entire shift, the front desk will say, “enjoy your day off.”  What?  I don’t want a day off, I want to work.

There is a great possibility for those covering a long shift they will have an appointment in the morning and then another one six hours later.  They are expected to leave so as not to be on the clock if they aren’t busy.  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?  Yet. . .”we” therapists let it happen.  This is why unions were born.

I’d like to ask everyone to boycott spas and to see Massage Therapists in their home or yours.  However, yours truly would be wishing I hadn’t suggested this if it were to happen.  We are paid fairly for the hour(s) we work, but I’ve yet to meet a self-supporting Massage Therapist locally that doesn’t work two or more places and or other jobs to make ends meet. (I can’t be disappointed by this aspect of it, as I prefer a variety of work).

As an independent contractor for a spa, there is the opportunity to set your own schedule and are usually compensated somewhere between $40-60 per 50 or 60 minute session.  As an employee, the pay is typically $8/hour + 18-20% commission + 18% gratuity.  Sounds great!  And, it is when you are working.  The hotels’ financial advisers got smart when deciding to automatically add the gratuity.  The guest is told it can be changed if they like, as it can’t be mandatory.  Most agree to it.  All in all, that provides more money for the hotel and offsets the therapists’ pay.  I get it – it is a business after all.

I LOVE being a Massage Therapist.  I have made some of my best friends through it and because of it.  Learning about the body, health, wellness and spirituality and how it is all inter-connected will be a forever passion and never grow old – uh, even though, with any luck, I will!  On behalf of the therapists I know personally, I do need to add that once in the room with you, we are there for you and because of you.

I am, however, saddened by the business-side of being a therapist. It has boiled down to everyone in the back room talking about how many appointments they have or don’t have and how a massage equates to a dollar amount.  Why aren’t we in the back room talking about new approaches, techniques, or how happy we are that we make a living doing what we love or even how much fun we’re having outside of work rather than hurrying to our next job?

I guess it sounds like I’m complaining.  Maybe I am – a little.  Thanks for allowing me to rant a bit. Ultimately, it’s up to me to accept this new way of the business of being a therapist.  As a spa director told me, “the old business model is no longer practiced.”

If you are wondering how I have the time to write a post like this. . .I’m on-call.