Salon Commission Calculator: Stylist Pay and Booth Rent
Every month-end the same question comes up: what does each stylist get? The sales are in one place, the percentage in your head, and the supplies in another. Enter one stylist's month below and see what they earn, what the salon keeps, and whether renting a chair would pay them more.
Stylist earns this month
—
That is — of everything they sold
Where the sales go
Same sales at other commission rates
| Service rate | Stylist | Salon keeps |
|---|
Quick answer: commission = (service sales − anything taken off first) × commission %. A stylist with $8,000 of services, $400 of supplies taken off and a 45% rate earns $3,420 on services. Add commission on retail, and tips if you pay them through payroll.
How to calculate commission for a salon
The maths is a percentage of sales, and the only decisions are which sales count and what comes off first. Written out:
Here is the month the calculator starts with:
- Add up the stylist's sales. $8,000 of services and $1,000 of retail: $9,000.
- Take off what you agreed to take off. $400 of color and back-bar supplies comes off the services: $8,000 − $400 = $7,600 commissionable.
- Apply the service rate. $7,600 × 45% = $3,420.
- Add retail commission. $1,000 × 10% = $100.
- Total for the stylist: $3,520, which is 39.1% of the $9,000 they sold.
- What the salon keeps: $9,000 − $3,520 − $400 of supplies = $5,080, before rent, the front desk, marketing and everything else the salon pays for.
The effective percentage (39.1%) is lower than the 45% headline rate because the supplies come off first and retail pays less. That is worth knowing when you compare offers: "45% after supplies" and "40% of the full price" can end up very close.
How to calculate stylist commissions: common structures
Salons usually pay one of these, and the same calculator covers most of them:
- Flat percentage of services. The simplest: one rate on the service price. Put 0 in the supplies box.
- Percentage after supplies. Color or back-bar cost is taken off first, or a supply charge is deducted. Enter that amount in "taken off before commission".
- Different rate for retail. Product commission is usually much lower than service commission, often around 10% to 20%. Enter it in "Retail commission".
- Tiered or sliding scale. The rate goes up with sales. For 40% up to $5,000 and 50% above, a stylist who sells $8,000 earns $2,000 + $1,500 = $3,500 (43.75% overall). Run the calculator once for each tier and add the results. OwnDesk Salon itself uses one flat percentage per staff member and does not do tiers.
Service commission in salons is commonly quoted somewhere between 40% and 60%, lower for newer stylists and higher for experienced ones with their own clientele. That is a rough guide only. What matters is that the salon still has money left after paying everything the stylist uses: the chair, the products, the front desk, the booking and the marketing that fills the book.
Salon suite vs booth rental vs commission
A stylist who rents a chair or a suite pays a fixed amount and keeps everything they earn, but buys their own supplies. A stylist on commission shares each sale and the salon carries the fixed costs. Which pays more depends only on volume. With the calculator's example (45% commission, $400 of monthly supplies, $1,600 monthly rent), this is what each side gets on services alone:
| Monthly service sales | Stylist on commission | Stylist renting | Salon on commission | Salon on rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3,000 | $1,170 | $1,000 | $1,430 | $1,600 |
| $5,000 | $2,070 | $3,000 | $2,530 | $1,600 |
| $8,000 | $3,420 | $6,000 | $4,180 | $1,600 |
| $12,000 | $5,220 | $10,000 | $6,380 | $1,600 |
The crossover is the rent divided by the salon's share, plus the supplies: $1,600 ÷ 0.55 + $400 ≈ $3,309 of service sales a month. Below it commission pays the stylist more and the salon collects less than the rent. Above it, renting pays the stylist more and commission earns the salon more. The numbers exclude retail, taxes and a renter's own insurance and licence costs, and in many places a renter is self-employed rather than an employee, which has legal consequences. Check the rules where you operate before you move anyone from commission to rent.
"Salon suite" and "booth rental" are the same arrangement in money terms. A booth is a station in your salon; a suite is a private room the stylist runs as their own business. Both pay rent in exchange for keeping what they earn, and the calculator's rent box covers both.
Stop redoing the month-end maths
The calculator works out one stylist for one month. A salon with five stylists does that five times, and has to dig the sales out of the appointment book first. OwnDesk Salon does the standard part for you: set a commission percentage once per staff member, and it works out the commission owed from that stylist's completed appointments this month. Click a stylist's card and you see their appointments, revenue and commission owed, not the whole salon's totals mixed together.
Be clear on what it does and does not do: it applies one flat percentage to the price of completed appointments. It does not do tiered rates, a separate retail commission, supplies taken off first or rent for booth renters, so for those cases use the calculator above. It is a one-time payment with no per-chair or monthly fee, works offline on your own computer, and also handles clients, services, appointments and retail inventory.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate commission for a salon?
What is a typical commission rate for a hair stylist?
Is commission paid on sales before or after tax and tips?
Should commission be calculated before or after supplies?
What is a tiered or sliding-scale commission?
Is it better to pay commission or rent a chair?
What is the difference between a salon suite and booth rental?
Can salon software calculate stylist commissions automatically?
Is this salon commission calculator free?
Set each stylist's percentage once
OwnDesk Salon works out the commission owed for every stylist from their completed appointments, next to clients, services, appointments and retail inventory. One payment, no per-chair subscription.