Commission, salary or chair rent: how to pay salon staff
7 min read · For salon, spa and barbershop owners
How you pay your team shapes everything in a salon: who shows up on quiet days, who pushes to finish one more client, and how much you keep at the end of the month. There are four common models. None is right for everyone.
1. Commission only
The stylist earns a share of each service they do — a percentage (for example 40%) or a fixed amount per service (for example KES 150 per cut).
- Good for: busy salons, experienced stylists with their own clients, barbershops.
- Watch out for: slow weeks hit staff hard; stylists competing for walk-ins.
2. Salary only
A fixed monthly or weekly amount, whatever the sales.
- Good for: receptionists and cashiers, trainees, spas with fully booked appointments.
- Watch out for: no reward for extra effort; you carry the cost of quiet months.
3. Salary plus commission
A smaller base pay plus a lower commission rate. For example, a basic wage plus 20% of services.
- Good for: keeping good people through quiet periods while still rewarding busy days.
- Watch out for: it needs the most careful record-keeping, because you're tracking both.
4. Chair or station rent
The stylist pays you a fixed rent for the chair and keeps what they charge.
- Good for: owners who want steady income without managing people day to day.
- Watch out for: you lose control of prices, standards and the client relationship.
A worked comparison
Say a stylist brings in KES 60,000 of services in a month.
| Model | Stylist gets | Salon keeps (before costs) |
|---|---|---|
| 40% commission | KES 24,000 | KES 36,000 |
| Salary KES 18,000 | KES 18,000 | KES 42,000 |
| KES 10,000 + 20% | KES 22,000 | KES 38,000 |
Now make it a quiet month with KES 30,000 of services: the commission-only stylist gets KES 12,000, the salaried one still KES 18,000, and the mixed one KES 16,000. That's the trade-off in one table: commission shares the risk, salary moves it to you.
Whatever you choose, write it down
- Each person's rate, and any different rate on specific services.
- Whether commission is on the full price or on what the client paid after a discount.
- How advances and bonuses are handled.
- When and how you pay (for example, every Saturday by M-Pesa).
See how to calculate salon commission for the maths, or let BeautyFlow do it: set each person's rate once, and every sale books their commission, with payslips when you pay.