Your book
Use a typical recent week, not your best Saturday. Retail stays put when the break-even client count is solved — new appointments do not automatically sell more product.
Commission deal
What the salon pays you. They typically cover rent, card fees, and laundry.
Booth-rent deal
You keep the ticket and pay the chair. Backbar is color and product used on clients, not retail you sell.
Payroll tax
On commission you are a W-2 employee and the salon pays half your FICA. On booth rent you are self-employed and pay both halves — an effective 14.1% of net against 7.65% of wages, charged to the booth side only. Until that comes out, the two checks are not the same dollars.
The bracket is optional: half of self-employment tax is deductible against income tax, and naming your bracket credits that back. Left at 0 it is worth nothing here, which understates booth rent rather than overstating it. Social Security stops at the wage base and Medicare does not; the default is the 2026 amount, indexed every January, so check yours if your chair income is near it. Income tax itself is not modelled — it lands on either deal much the same and depends on your whole household.
Common questions
How do I know if booth rent is worth it?
Look at both numbers. A bigger weekly check that costs six extra unpaid hours can be a worse job. If the hourly rate drops, you are paying for the lease with time you used to get paid for.
How many clients do I need to cover booth rent?
The break-even count is weekly appointments at your average ticket that make booth take-home match your current split, holding retail constant. Stay below it and the chair costs more than the extra you keep of each service.
What costs do stylists forget?
Card processing, color used on clients, wholesale cost of retail, booth insurance, towels, and the booking and laundry hours the front desk used to do.
What weekly rent would make booth rent match my commission split?
On the default book here (14 clients/week at $85, 50% commission, standard card and backbar rates), booth rent matches commission's $603 weekly take-home at $451.17/week in rent — well above the $275/week entered. Above that number the lease is taking more than the split ever did; the calculator's "Max weekly rent to match split" updates for your own numbers.
How many clients per week do I need before booth rent pays off?
The break-even is wherever booth take-home first matches commission at the same ticket and retail. On the default book that lands around 8.4 clients/week — the entered 14/week is already past it, which is why "Extra clients to match" reads zero. Below break-even, commission's smaller cut of a smaller check still beats rent, fees, and backbar.
Can adding more clients always make booth rent win?
No. Each extra client only helps booth rent if what you keep per ticket after card fees, backbar, and the salon's own commission rate is still positive. At a 92% commission split, for instance, card fees and backbar alone push that past 100% — every added client helps commission by at least as much, so no amount of volume closes the gap. When that happens the calculator reports "volume cannot close this gap"; the fix is a lower rent or lower backbar, not more chair time.
Do I pay more tax on booth rent than on commission?
Yes, and it is the most commonly missed number in this decision. On commission you are a W-2 employee: you pay the employee half of FICA, 7.65%, and the salon pays the matching half. On booth rent you are self-employed and pay both halves — 15.3%, charged on 92.35% of your net after rent, fees, and backbar. Nothing about the ticket changes; the same money is simply taxed about 6.5 points harder because of which deal you took (15.3% of 92.35% of net works out to an effective 14.1%, against the employee's 7.65%). On the default book that is roughly $3,200 a year, and it is why the max rent you can pay and still match your split is about $45 a week lower than the untaxed arithmetic suggests. Half of self-employment tax is deductible against income tax, which gives some of it back at your marginal rate; enter your bracket to count it.
Why might booth rent win on the weekly check but lose per hour?
Booth rent shifts laundry, booking, and restocking onto you, and those hours are unpaid on both sides but usually more of them on booth. On the default book, raising unpaid booth hours from 7 to 15 (no front desk covering that work) still leaves booth $176/week ahead in dollars — $779 vs commission's $603 — but its hourly rate falls to $23.97 against commission's $30.92. A bigger check spread over more unpaid hours can be the worse-paying job even while it wins on the total.
Your comparison
Commission
Booth rent
- Service + retail / week
- Chair hours / week
- Booth costs / week
- Break-even clients / week
- Extra clients to match
- Max weekly rent to match split
- Annual difference
After payroll tax
The same book with FICA on the commission side and self-employment tax on the booth side. This is the comparison that decides which deal actually pays more.
- Commission, after tax / month
- Booth rent, after tax / month
- Monthly difference after tax
- Self-employment tax / year
- Employee FICA / year
- What the tax gap costs booth / year
- Break-even clients / week, after tax
- Max weekly rent to match, after tax
The share link contains your book, rent, and commission numbers in the URL. Treat it like any other link with business figures.
Transparent arithmetic from your own book. Starting figures are a mid-book colorist example, not a wage claim, a lease recommendation, or tax advice. Replace every input with your numbers before you sign anything.