Salon calculators · Booth rent vs commission
Booth rent vs commission calculator
Enter a stylist’s monthly service sales, their commission split, and what renting a booth would cost them. See who comes out ahead — for the stylist and for the salon. It opens on an example; type over it.
The stylist’s month
On commission
The salon pays for product, supplies and the chair.
Renting a booth
Product, supplies, insurance, card fees, booking software.
Booth rent pays the stylist more
$2,166.67
a month, before income tax
The stylist takes home
The salon takes in
How the comparison works
On commission, the stylist keeps their split — 45% of $7,000 is $3,150 — and the salon pays for the chair, product and supplies out of its share.
Renting a booth, the stylist keeps every dollar of service sales but pays the rent and their own costs. $250 a week is about $1,083 a month (52 weeks ÷ 12); with $600 of product, supplies and insurance, they take home $7,000 − $1,083 − $600 = $5,317.
The gap narrows as sales fall. Because a renter’s costs are fixed, there is a level of sales where the two pay the same — about $3,061 a month in this example. Below it, commission pays the stylist more.
For the salon, it is the mirror image: commission brings in more on a busy stylist, rent brings in a predictable amount whatever they sell, and the salon gives up control of prices, hours and products.
Common questions
Is booth rent or commission better for a stylist?
It depends on how much they sell. Renting has fixed costs — the rent and their own product and running costs — so it pays more once service sales pass the break-even this calculator shows, and less below it. A stylist with a full book usually comes out ahead renting; one still building a clientele usually does better on commission.
How do I work out the break-even?
Add the monthly rent and the renter’s own costs, then divide by the salon’s share of a commission split. With $1,083 rent and $600 of costs on a 45% split, that is $1,683 ÷ 0.55 ≈ $3,061 of services a month.
How do taxes differ?
A commissioned stylist is usually an employee, so the salon withholds income tax and pays its share of payroll taxes. A booth renter is usually self-employed and pays both halves of Social Security and Medicare themselves, plus their own insurance. Those differences aren’t in the calculator, which compares pay before income tax.
Can a salon just call someone a booth renter?
No. Whether someone is an employee or independent depends on how the work actually runs — who sets prices, hours and products — not on what the agreement is called, and the rules differ by state. Take advice before changing models.
Related
- Hair salon commission structure — splits, tiers, product charges and booth rent.
- Barbershop commission structure — splits versus chair rent.
- Commission split calculator — the commission side in more detail.
- All salon calculators
Keeping stylists on commission? CommissionBoard calculates every split from your POS report and shows each stylist their pay building through the month.
Free to use, nothing to sign up for, and nothing you type into the calculator is sent anywhere — it all runs in your browser.