Free calculator
Esthetician Commission Calculator
Compare job offers without the spreadsheet. See weekly pay, effective hourly rate, and the risks hiding inside commission structures.
Commission calculator
Offer A
Enter the offer terms. Treat bookings as a realistic average, not best-case.
Enter 0 if commission-only.
Estimated dollar value of health, PTO, etc.
Compared side-by-side
Estimated weekly and monthly pay across every offer you've entered.
Offer A
- No benefits offered
Offer B
- No benefits offered
Help improve benchmarks
Add your real compensation to the pay transparency dataset. Helps every esthetician see what fair pay looks like in their area.
Only aggregated benchmarks are shown publicly. We never display individual submissions.
See pay benchmarks for your role and city
Anonymous compensation data from estheticians across the country. We email a snapshot each month.
How the math works
Stack the pay sources
Weekly pay = hourly + service commission + retail commission + tips. We add them up, then roll to monthly and subtract commute costs.
Bookings make or break commission
Commission only earns when you're booked. Low projected bookings turn a generous % into a tight paycheck.
Effective hourly accounts for downtime
If the spa requires you to be there 40 hrs but only books you 25, divide your weekly pay by the full 40 (or more) to see the real rate.
Benefits have a dollar value
Health insurance, paid time off, education stipends. Estimate the monthly value so you can compare to commission-only offers honestly.
Example: $18/hr + 35% service commission
A common mid-market spa offer with retail incentive.
- Hourly pay
- $18/hr
- Service commission
- 35%
- Retail commission
- 10%
- Weekly bookings
- 12 clients
- Average ticket
- $100
- Tips per week
- $200
Weekly pay totals around $1,360 (hourly + service + retail + tips). Monthly: roughly $5,900 before taxes. Effective hourly rate is about $34/hr. The calculator flags this offer as risky if there's no benefits package or if bookings drop below 10/week.
Frequently asked questions
- Is commission-only ever a good deal?
- It can be. In a high-volume spa with a built-in client base, a 45–55% service commission can outpace hourly+commission roles. But you absorb every slow week, holiday, and rebuild after maternity leave. Treat it cautiously if you're newer.
- How do I value benefits like health insurance?
- Estimate what you'd pay for the same coverage on the marketplace, then subtract the employer contribution. For PTO, multiply your weekly pay by the number of paid weeks off. Add both to the monthly benefits field.
- What's a typical service commission for estheticians?
- Most US spas pay 30–45% on services. High-end spas with strong booking systems sometimes pay 50%+. Booth-rent roles pay 100% of revenue minus the fixed rent. See the booth rent calculator for that math.
- Should I count retail commission?
- Yes, but be realistic. Many estheticians overestimate retail attach rates. A 10% retail commission on $8 sold per client across 12 weekly clients = about $10/week, small but real.
- What counts as unpaid downtime?
- Hours you're required at the spa but aren't booked and aren't paid. If the spa requires 40 hours but only books you 25, that's 15 hours of unpaid downtime per week. The calculator uses this to compute your true hourly rate.
- Can I compare more than two offers?
- Yes. Click 'Add offer' to compare up to three side-by-side. Each tab keeps its own inputs while the results panel shows them all together.