MORE ON PAY…
A lot of yoga teachers are struggling. Last month, I wrote an article about pay and working conditions of yoga teachers. Responses to it included: “what you write about working as a yoga teacher, pay etc is really important”; “thank you for putting into words what many of us feel”; and “really honest and lots of very good proposals”.
In this article, I suggested that the minimum hourly rate needs to be £30. After reflection and following discussion with other teachers and acknowledging current economic realities – such as inflation and rising costs of living – I now believe that this figure (for us as yoga teachers to sustain ourselves and practice self-care) needs to be £35 per hour; and for teachers with more than three years experience, the minimum hourly rate is £40. Or plenty of us will fall into the trap described by Nadia Gilani in The Yoga Manifesto: “working at a wellness company had left me feeling unwell”.
The current standard rate of pay for yoga teachers at – as one example – Virgin Active is £28 per hour; this is similar to the UK minimum wage (£9.50 per hour) when all the extra work that we have do is taken into consideration. As Jess Glenny wrote: “When you take into account time spent on marketing, admin, accounts, CPD and all the rest of it, it’s not very surprising to me that contact time is a relatively small proportion of what we do”. And to teach at Virgin Active, you must attend a two-day course (for which you have to pay £50).
I taught yoga at Virgin Active in 2002 – 20 years ago – and the pay rate was £30 per hour. Many costs have substantially risen since then; as one example a weekly 1-4 zone travelcard in London in 2002 cost £28.10; it is now £55.20 — an increase of nearly 100%. Just to clarify: for about seven years, most classes I taught were in gyms; I am definitely not “anti-gym” – I am pro-good working conditions and sustainable pay rates.
Another example: Triyoga has been telling its teachers that the class pay top-up (which ensures that teachers get a base rate of £30 for a one-hour class and £35 for a 75-minute class) could be removed – and management has been pushing the teachers to do more (such as social media promotion) encouraging of students to attend classes. More work; possibly less pay.
Here are a few points that I believe could be helpful:
yoga teachers have a voice for themselves as yoga teachers. I strongly encourage teachers in the UK to get actively involved with the Yoga Teachers’ Union [https://yogateachersunion.co.uk];
There is transparency from studios and teachers about pay rates, annual income and turnover;
High-earning teachers at yoga studios agree to a pay cap to support those less well paid; thus a more equitable distribution of resources;
The 200-hour yoga TT package is perceived as a foundation for qualifying instead of a qualification in itself (bearing in mind that many other similar person-centered professions require much longer times of training);
Teachers restrict giving away too much material too cheaply or for free as this can devalue our work.
Some might say this is somewhat utopian. But think about all our efforts as practitioners. Think about all the energy so many of us have put into teaching. Realise that we have to start somewhere. Standing up for what is fair and just is an essential part of practice.
To make inclusivity and diversity mean more than mere words, the economics of yoga teaching need to change. These points are paths for all of us to discuss what could be ethical and sustainable models for yoga teaching and to find balances between freedom and regulation, between accessibility and improving standards. We can aspire towards less competing, less individual branding, and more collective consciousness of us as yoga teachers.
Norman Blair
23 September 2022
