Massage therapists: what do you consider full time hours?

Question

For professional massage therapists:

1. How many hours of hands-on is your maximum per week?

2. How many days or shifts per week is your max?

3. Is massage therapy your only source of income?

4. How much do you receive per hour for massage?

5. Are you self employed, an independant contractor or an employee?

6. Do you receive medical insurance?

7. Do you work in an office, your home, clients location or other?

8. Would you take less pay per hour if it meant less self-
advertising, more clients and better benefits?

9. How long have you been a practicing professional?

10. Would you rather be on-call or have a set schedule of hours?


Thanks for your thoughtful answers! =-)

Answer 1

1) Different therapists allow different amounts of time between clients, some allow 30 mins, some allow 15 mins, a few allow zero time. If you allow 30 min between clients it allows for the client to be a little bit late, and documenting any relevant details such as injuries and illnesses, time to get on the table, time to get off the table, time to pay for the service and time to clean up before the next client.
Depending on the type of treatment you provide, it could be a physically demanding one or not, so you'll also need time to recuperate your energy. For example I've heard of Bowen Therapists treating two clients at the same time.
I provide Swedish, Remedial and gentle relaxation. I won't take more than 6 x one and a half hour appointments per day (that equates to 9 hours) and I prefer to stick to 4 per day (20 per week). But I'm not currently working in massage until I get my own office set up somewhere.

2) Some people work 7 days per week whenever they can get work, some people use it as part time work to supplement other income. Many people start by having a couple of regular clients who come in once a fortnight or once a month, and build up from there.
I used to have one bloke and two women every week and two women once a month. 10 regular appointments per month. But I gave them up... well... I gave up working at the place. I'm hoping to get 2 -3 days per fortnight at 5 clients per day to fit into my current work.

3) No massage therapy is not my only source of income, if you go to an accountant or do your own research, you'll see that organising your own superannuation and sick leave, holiday pay, illness and accident insurance, as well as running your own business expenses such as linen (purchasing and washing), oils, table, office and office cleaning, maintaining the grounds (mowing the lawn, weeding, gutters, footpaths, driveways, parking lot etc) gets really tedious and expensive. So I have a regular part time job that allows me to have sick leave and holiday pay and what not, and I hope to fit some massage in as well.

4) This is the big question... the answer relies on how you want to organise your massage work. I have found that if I try to organise my massage work as a full time job, and work 35 hours per week, which is 20 clients at $55.00 per treatment, I end up with about $19.00 per hour as long as all appointments are taken up, if there is a lack of clients, then that hourly rate starts dropping, because insurances are fixed expenses, and holiday and sick leave are fixed expenses etc.

5) I have been an employee, which was good, that changed to contractor which sucked so I quit, and now I'm gradually working towards being self employed.
Being an employee is good because someone else organises everything and you... well... the work I had, I was paid to turn up for 3 hours, and if more work turned up then I'd get extra, but that changed to contract work, where I would only get paid per client, that sucked when clients would be booked in but they didn't turn up, and the question was raised as to whether these "clients" were actually legitimately booked or if the place just wrote the bookings in to make sure I would come in (and the place would have a massage therapist on hand just in case at my expense, rather than at their expense). But it was good being employed. I would work as a permanent employee with the benefits of being permanently employed for $20 per hour ( not $20 per client ), but I don't think that that is realistically affordable when you include employee tax and superannuation, sick leave, holiday leave, injury insurance etc.

6) When I was employed I had medical cover supplied by the employer, it is a legal necessity, but as a contractor and self employed, it can become dubious, you will need your own, but the places where you work will also need to have it, and then the insurance companies will have to figure out who is liable depending on the situation of the incident. Legally the places that you go to work "should" have it, but in this field of work, you are very likely to go to peoples homes and a lot of people rent their dwellings and so they don't have their place insured, I don't know if you can go through the landlords insurance, but I wouldn't risk it. By the way illness and accident insurance is kind of the same as income protection insurance which generally costs you about one weeks wages, the catch is in self employment, the wage coming in from 20 clients per week is $1100 / wk. But when you cover all your costs, you aren't actually getting that $1100/wk, you're only getting about $550/wk. And to be eligible for that insurance you have to have two years worth of accounting records to prove your income.

7) I think I've already answered this question is the stuff above. I have worked in a beauticians office, I've worked in clients homes, I've worked in my home, I've worked in a naturopaths office, I've worked in an Osteopaths office.

8) Considering the physically draining nature of the techniques I use, I wouldn't go below $20 as an hourly rate (not a per client rate, ever again, I'd rather be self employed. Remember here; it costs you to be there for them, but it doesn't cost them anything at all, if they get a general enquiry, they can write that up as a booking when it is not , so you turn up but get nothing for it). There is an award rate for massage, in the next state, but not where I'm from. They are entitled to $17.00/hr with a casual loading of 25% and a minimum shift of 3 hours. Thats 17 x 3 + 20% = $63.75, they still get superannuation, but they don't get sick leave or holiday pay, and they are expected to stay and be available for those 3 hours. Where I am, it is generally expected that the charge for a remedial massage will be $55.00, then depending on where you work, you negotiate what will be paid for by who and it is usually contract/self employed work, so you need your own business setup with your own accounting systems and letterheads etc.

9) I've been working on and off for about 10 years, mostly off, I would estimate that I haven't done more than one year of full time massage. That would be 45 wks x 20 massages / wk = 900 massages.

10) I would rather have a set schedule of hours, so I can incorporate other part time work to provide incidental benefits such as superannuation etc. and I'd rather be employed so I don't have to do all the accounting and running the business such as laundry and advertising and organising insurance etc.
If a large business would organise it I would guess that it would be cheaper for them, but as a sole trader, I don't have much bargaining power, so I can't get cheaper rates. for example, a business like a large bank would easily already have the accounting and personnel procedures in place, as well as the managerial know how.

Good luck, Let me know how it goes, maybe you can give me a job if you can make it work.

Answer 2

that's a superb container to get into (being a LMT myself). the countless experts - making your own time table, sturdy pay, assisting human beings experience greater advantageous and loosen up,and so on. the countless cons - no longer all women each physique is delicate seeing a male therapist, no longer all men are delicate seeing a male therapist, there's a lot which will ask for greater advantageous than in hassle-free terms a massasge. yet base line - if that is something which you savor doing and are enthusiastic approximately why no longer choose for it? As for standards - they variety from state to state, so that's maximum suitable to ascertain including your interior of sight government.

Answer 3

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