How Much Money Can I Earn As A Yoga Instructor
A yoga teachers income varies based on how often they teach, where they teach, and other businesses they may be involved in. Pay ranges from one instructor to the other and from one city to the next.
Its hard to find exact figures on the salary of an instructor, but a few sources do shed some light on exactly how much yoga teachers make. Before we take a look at the actual numbers, here are some factors that influence the income of a yoga practitioner.
Cost #1 Paying The Yoga Instructors
Hiring and retaining excellent yoga instructors is vital to the survival of your yoga studio. Instructors receive payment on a per-class basis, on a per-student basis, or an hourly wage.
The highest cost in my wellness business is the pay for the therapists. I can retain and hire the best therapists because I pay the highest rates in London and also provide sufficient work. I see yoga studio owners paying minimal wage to yoga teachers or even having yoga teachers teaching for free.
The average yoga teacher pay per class is usually $30-100. This payment should go to the instructors pockets, irrespective of how many students show up. Instructors may also choose to get paid by the student the standard rate is $2-5/student. If they teach 30 students in a class, their fees will be $90 for that class. If the price is $20/class for students, your revenue from the session is $600, and you pay the teacher $90.
Factors That Impact Yoga Teacher Salary
Many seasoned yoga teachers insist that how much youll make as an instructor is all up to you.
While your hustle plays a huge role in your yoga teacher salary, there are many other factors that impact it. Some are in your control, and some are outside of it.
They include:
Location Yoga is a competitive industry, and some cities are full of free or by-donation classes. Its hard to get paid even $25 an hour when the teacher down the street is offering classes for free! Research average teacher salaries in your area before you commit to being a full-time teacher.
How youre paid Some yoga studios pay teachers a flat fee per hour of teaching . Others pay based on attendance .
Education & experience A yoga teacher who has 500 hours of teacher training including specialized training can charge more for group classes than a less experienced teacher.
What you offer While group yoga lessons are an essential stepping stone on your path to a full-time job as a yoga teacher, other services pay more per hour. Consider adding the following to your repertoire:
- Private lessons and duet sessions
- Private group classes
- Workshops focused on advanced yoga concepts and poses
- Teaching in a yoga teacher training program
- Online classes, workshops, and series
Reputation Some yoga teachers are successful on a bigger regional or national scale. As you build your reputation, you can start to secure brand sponsorships, guest teaching spots, and other high-paying opportunities.
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What Is The Average Yoga Teacher Salary
Google How much do yoga teachers make a year, and youll find a wide range of answers.
Glassdoor reports the average yoga teacher salary to be $47,000, while CNN puts the number closer to $62,000.
Lets take the middle ground and say $54,000.
Now, some of you might look at that income and say, Thats not so bad. I can happily live off $54k a year.
Well, lets take a sec to crunch the numbers and see how many classes you must teach to earn that salary.
How much do yoga instructors make per class? How much do yoga instructors make an hour?
For the sake of simplicity, lets answer both at one time:
The average studio yoga class pays $35 an hour.
A Passion For Teaching Yoga
The instructor has to love yoga and not be doing this only to make a buck. If the teacher doesnt have passion, your students wont keep coming back. If you put a disinterested teacher in front of an established student base at your studio, they might leave your studio for a competitor.
Analyze the body language of the teacher and listen to their tone of voice. Look them in the eyes and notice if they have a focused look, something that only a person with a deep understanding of meditation and yoga philosophy could obtain. See if they are present in the moment and if they carry themselves with the aura of an authentic yoga teacher.
The body language alone will reveal everything you need to know about their ability to teach yoga. However, verbal communication will show their true intentions and the reasons they want to teach.
You need to figure out what styles they can teach, how they can teach at your studio, their ideal schedule, teaching style, etc. You also want to know if they can teach extra days or weekends, as this will help with the scheduling process.
Here are some of the best questions to ask teachers to learn about their motivations:
- Why did you start teaching yoga?
- How has yoga changed your life?
- Do you have a personal opinion about the benefits of yoga?
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How Much Does Your Experience Influence Yoga Instructor Salary
When surfing the web, we found that the average yogainstructor salary differs depending on the site youre looking at. Its alsoheavily impacted by the number of vacancies being compared on each site meaning the salaries listed should be taken with a pinch of salt.
One thing you can be sure of, however, is that the moreexperience you have, the more you can expect to earn.
According to job site Jobted, which has analysed all yoga instructor jobs posted on the platform in the past 12 months, the average hourly rate for a newly qualified yogi with up to three years experience is £10.30.
An instructor with between four to nine years experience would be classed as mid-level and might expect their hourly rate to rise to around £24. However, this increases further to £36 per hour once you reach senior-level or around ten years experience.
Those with 20 years experience or more as a yoga instructorcan expect to earn within the £40-£50 per hour bracket. But of course,your yearly earnings will ultimately depend on the number of hours you work.
Remember, though these are just averages, and experienceisnt the only factor that influences a yoga instructors salary.
However, clearly, as with any profession, theres scope to increase your earnings as you become more experienced at the job.
Youll also have a lot more control over your salary if you run your own yoga studio.
Cons Of Being A Yoga Instructor
Here are a few of the downsides:
1. Time Commitment
Youll likely be teaching in a few different studios or with a number of different private clients. When you add together the travel time between classes and the time you put into planning your sequences, more goes into your one-hour class than the hour you get paid for. Know your worth and calculate everything into your rate.
2. Lack of Benefits
It is not the norm for studios to hire teachers as full-time staff with benefits. In the United States, for example, this can be a major barrier for some who need health insurance.
3. Burn Out
As you start out it can be tempting to accept every teaching opportunity youre given, but be careful to avoid burning yourself out.
Running all over the city from one class to the next followed by a night of sequence planning can quickly run your body down. Keep your schedule as realistic as possible.
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The Size Of Market Model
There are A, B and C Markets
Another factor not often talked about is the market you are in. There are different size markets with different pay rates. For simplicity, Ill call them A, B, and C.
A Market
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York are A Markets. There are lots of opportunities to teach, and the average wage for a yoga teacher is higher than in any other market. You can absolutely make a living in a market this big. One other bonus is you have access to some of the very best yoga education anywhere. The downside is the cost of living is high. The average cost of 1 bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3513. With an abundance of yoga teachers in this market, meaning lack of scarcity, youre going to need skills to teach at the best studios.
B Market
What unites yoga in Sacramento, Austin, and Minneapolis? They are all examples of B markets. You have populations that practice yogaa lot, and yoga studios to serve their needs. Can you teach full-time and make a living here? Never say never, but its more difficult than in a larger market. Youre going to have to hustle and be creative.
C Market
The market youre in goes back to our initial inquiryis being a yoga teacher worth it financially.
The pay rate answers only part of the question. You need to know the economicsis there a demand for yoga teachers? Are there opportunities to teach?
And are those opportunities increasing or not?
The winner in 2015, the only year Thumbtack did it, was Nashville.
Invest In More Training
Common Misconception: Once you complete your yoga teacher training, you are done with your education.
Reality: Top yoga teachers go above and beyond in their yoga teacher training. They are continuously investing in their professional development and yoga practice. This keeps the fire alive and inspiration flowing! After all, the wise Buddha once said:
Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching
A 200-hour YTT is bare minimum for any yoga teacher. Consider getting an acro yoga instructor certification, taking a prenatal yoga teacher training, or attending conferences and workshops.
You can follow your yoga-related interests like learning about Ayurveda, anatomy, yoga therapy, essential oils, or better meditation guiding skills. Keep up with yoga retail trends and the most popular yoga brands.
To grow your yoga instructor salary, it is also wise to invest in courses that teach valuable skills like social media management, email marketing, how to make an online yoga course, business management, and more.
As a yoga instructor, you should always be learning as much as you teach. One you start thinking I know all I need to know, your growth in income will stall. Remember to invest in yourself!
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Yoga Teacher Salary Survey
What is the average yoga instructor salary in the United States?
$25.00*
What is the average yoga instructor salary in California?
$36.00
What is the average yoga instructor salary in New York?
$44.00
Where does this information come from?
Indeed.com is an aggregator of jobs posted online. It analyzes job postings to get title , pay, and location. Size matters. Indeed has more data points, in this case individual yoga salaries, 1649 and 270 respectively. This gives a more reliable figure for the U.S and California. The New York number is not as reliable, with only 47 data points.
Glassdoor.com features more self-reports from employees, so their sample size is not necessarily representative as it can be skewed by the people choosing to report. Payscale.com uses surveys to compile information. Both can be used as a check of how realistic Indeeds number is.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is part of the U.S. Department of Labor charged with measuring labor market activity and has a wealth of information on various occupations. Again, its another verification source.
The challenges of relying on online sites.
Online sites annual salaries assume youll be working a traditional workweek, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.
Only thats not how most yoga teachers work. They work by the class. You need to know the hourly rate to make this more relevant to how yoga is compensated.
To get it, use this quick rule of thumb. Divide any annual salary you come across by 2000.
2019: 251
Whats In A Yoga Instructor Salary
There seems to be more than a little bit of confusion surrounding the average salary of a certified yoga instructor.
In the United States, yoga instructors make an average of $24.96 per hour, making anywhere from 31K-100K, with the national average clocking in at wait for it $60K.
Real US dollars, not Monopoly money.
Now, depending on where you live in the United States, the notion of a $60K annual salary might sound pretty sweet.or wholly underwhelming.
To reach that figure, you would basically have to teach 26 yoga classes per week for a whole year, at the rate of $50 per class. This hourly rate is shall we say, not extremely commonplace.
Which is why when someone asks so, whats an average salary of a yoga teacher? you cant just throw out five-figure salary figures and shout NEXT QUESTION!
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The Creative Artist Model
In How to Become a Yoga Teacher, I describe how yoga teachers are in the creative arts like chefs, writers, or musicians. This is true in matters of pay and possibility too.
In the creative arts, you have a lot of people making a little bit of money and a few people making a significant amount of money.
Take writers. In 2017, the Median Pay for Full Time Writers was $20,300
If you include Part-Time Writers, the amount goes down to $6080.
Why the vast disparity in income for writers and other creatives? This will be addressed in an upcoming article about making a sustainable living.
As a yoga teacher, you are in business for yourself, an entrepreneur, and its helpful to think like one.
People who succeed tend to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit, said Michael Levine, a hairstylist, and chief executive officer of the Vancouver-based Michael Levine Salon Group
Taylor Swift clearly gets that she is an entrepreneur. Arguably one of the most influential creative artists of the last decade, Taylor has become successful because of her hard worka key theme for creatives who thrive.
But before that fire catches, you need an income, which is where the realization from Rachel Whitener, private chef, comes in. She started out initially as a pastry chef.
Work on your craft
Grow the demand for what you do
The Costs Of Running A Yoga Studio
The cost of running a yoga studio plays a big role in how much yoga studio owners make. The highest costs of running a yoga studio are the instructor salaries and rent, not the equipment. If you own a gym, you have to spend $50,000-100,000 on equipment. Yoga studios are much cheaper because all you need are mats and blocks.
The highest cost is for the rent/lease. The rental price for a small yoga studio in a top city such as New York could exceed $8000/month for a moderate 1000 square foot space, depending on the location.
The rental costs might eat up as much as 20-30% of your monthly revenue. Moreover, youll have to pay off instructors who get paid by the class or by the student, spending at least another 30% of your top-line income on instructors.
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Know How Much Time You’re Really Putting In
For years, I’d have the most wonderful Saturdays almost entirely devoted to prepping my 5 pm class. Id practice for two, maybe three hours, just trying out sequences and exploring poses. Id go through favorite poems and other inspirations of the week. Id spend an hour putting together my playlist, excited to share it with my students. Id teach class and hang out a bit afterwards to chat with students, many of whom became lifelong friends.
An unbelievably fantastic way of spending a Saturday, if you ask me. And yet, the total time spent between teaching, prep, and travel, was about 9 hours just for my Saturday class.
Obviously, I wasnt pouring myself into my teaching for the moneyin fact, I would definitely have paid for the experience of sharing what I lovedbut its important to realize just how many hours you’re investing.
Cost #2 Paying Rent For The Yoga Studio
The rent will vary based on the location. Students want to come to an accessible site, ideally located near public transport if its in the urban core, or near a shopping plaza with convenient parking if its out in the suburbs.
The average studio is 400-1000 square feet, and many studios exceed that size. You only need a single room with mirrors, mats, and a sound system to build a yoga studio.
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How To Earn More As A Yoga Teacher
If you are looking to bring your earning potential to the next level, there is no shortage of ways to do it.
The highest earning yoga instructors recognize the need to earn a good living to sustain a yoga instructor career. Good business skills are essential and pay yoga teachers back tenfold. Proper insurance is particularly important for yoga instructors as yoga-related injuries are rising .
Once you have purchased insurance and gained a little business knowledge, you can really launch your teaching career and maximize your earnings.
There are endless opportunities for yoga instructors to grow their income. Try these five avenues for starters:
Yoga instructor pay can vary. Although teaching yoga is among the noblest of callings, it is like other careers in many ways. The most successful teachers work hard, invest in themselves, build a community and approach their work with sound business principles.
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Yoga Journal, . 2016 Yoga in America Study. Available at: .
Sadienardini.com, . Sadie Nardini. Available at: .
Sawin, T. and McGwin, G. . Yoga-Related Injuries in the United States from 2001 to 2014. Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine. Volume 4. Available at: .
