How to compare booth rent and commission for a nail tech
Short answer: divide take-home by the hours you worked, not the hours you booked. Booth rent is a fixed bet on a full book, a commission split costs a share of every service and nothing on a slow day, and an hourly job pays you for idle time but caps the upside. The calculator does the arithmetic for a typical week and for your past weeks.
Everything below is arithmetic on invented numbers. The prices, rents, splits and tax rates are illustrative, not market rates, not a survey and not tax advice. Replace them with your own.
The arithmetic
Booked hours = clients x chair minutes / 60. Idle hours = hours at the salon less booked hours.
Hours worked = the larger of hours at the salon and booked hours, plus unpaid admin hours (an employee is assumed to do admin on the clock).
Net = what you keep (services or your split, tips, retail) less rent, card fees, supplies, insurance and fixed costs.
Self-employment tax estimate = your rate x 92.35 percent of net; income reserve = your percent of net less half of that tax. Employees pay the employee share of payroll tax instead.
Take-home per hour worked = (net less both set-asides) / hours worked. Break-even clients is the fewest clients a week that reaches your target.
A worked week
36 hours at the salon, 24 clients at a $60.00 ticket and 75 minutes each, 4 unpaid admin hours, 18 percent tips, $5.00 of retail and $6.50 of supplies per client, and a $25.00 target. Booth rent is $275.00 a week; the commission split is 55 percent; the hourly job pays $15.00.
Booked: 30.0 hours, with 6.0 idle. Hours worked: 40.0 on booth or commission, 36.0 as an employee.
Booth rent: net $1,246.14, self-employment tax $176.07, income reserve $115.81, take-home $954.25: $23.86 an hour worked, $31.81 an hour booked, break-even at 24.9 clients.
Commission split: net $1,014.69, take-home $777.02: $19.43 an hour worked.
Employee: net $811.20, take-home $671.13: $18.64 an hour worked.
Booth rent overtakes the commission split at about 13.0 clients a week and the hourly job at about 18.6.
Slow week, 12 clients: booth $9.13 an hour worked, commission $9.55, and the hourly job $15.53.
The same chair is a $23.86-an-hour week or a $9.13-an-hour week depending only on how full the book is. None of the three reaches the $25.00 target at 24 clients.
A worked history
Eight past weeks, $7,139.60 of take-home over 317 hours: blended $22.52 an hour against a $25.00 target.
Six of eight weeks took home under target; the shortfall to target across them is $1,019.19.
By arrangement: booth $24.69 an hour with 39% of hours idle, commission $21.85 and employee $18.56.
The booth week with 19 booked hours out of 38 worked is the weakest booth week at $18.34 an hour.
What to feed it
Hours you were really at the salon and the unpaid hours around them, not the hours on your booking page.
Average ticket, tips and supplies from your own last few weeks.
The rent, split and wage you have actually been offered, and tax rates your own tax professional gave you.
Your lease, your employment terms and your state's rules come first. This is arithmetic, not a view on what a salon should charge.
Questions
How do I decide between booth rent and commission as a nail tech?
Work out take-home per hour worked for each, not per hour booked. On the worked week, 24 clients at a $60.00 ticket with 36 hours at the salon, booth rent takes home $23.86 an hour worked, the commission split $19.43 and an hourly job $18.64. Booth rent overtakes the commission split at about 13.0 clients a week.
Why does idle chair time matter?
Because rent and your own hours do not shrink when the chair is empty. In the worked week 6.0 of the 36 hours are idle, so booth take-home is $31.81 an hour booked but $23.86 an hour worked. At 12 clients a week booth rent falls to $9.13 an hour worked while the $15.00-an-hour job still pays $15.53.
How do I check which arrangement has actually paid me?
Enter each past week's pay, tips, expenses, hours worked and booked hours. On the worked history of eight weeks, booth weeks took home $24.69 an hour worked, commission $21.85 and employee weeks $18.56, and six of eight weeks fell under a $25.00 target.