Pay Increases and ClassPass
Yes: pay increases can happen. A studio in Scotland recently increased yoga teachers’ pay from £25/hour to £30/hour. A yoga chain in London that currently pays its teachers two rates – £53/hour for experienced and £46/hour for less experienced – is considering a pay increase. A teacher who works at a central London studio asked for a pay rise last month (they were being paid £35/hour) – the studio offered them an increase to £40/hour. We have to ask…
From 1 April, I am increasing the rates of pay to those who work with me. Pay for admin/social media work is now £23.50/hour (up from £22/hour); pay for those who assist on courses is now £130/day (up from £120/day); pay for those who teach a three-hour session on courses is now £300 (up from £280).
In contrast to pay increases for yoga teachers is the business practice of ClassPass. ClassPass allows its participants to go to a variety of different studios/gyms that have signed up to their scheme. This might appear to be good for yoga students – however, it is not so good for yoga studios.
ClassPass takes about 10% of what it receives and their prices are about 75% of an average drop-in price for a yoga class (so reduction for studio and thus teachers). Please note these figures are an approximation; and the figures vary from studio to studio. ClassPass revenue stream is increasing by about 10% a year.
When signing a contract with ClassPass, studios are forbidden to speak publicly about the details of their arrangement – like the Non-Disclosure Agreements made famous by people such as Harvey Weinstein. A few studios refuse to have any association with ClassPass; some studios are intimidated by ClassPass; some studios do not let ClassPass students into their busier classes: different strategies.
In October 2021, ClassPass were bought by MindBody for $500 million. Mindbody are majority owned by Vista Equity Partners, an American investment firm with about $100 billion assets. Its owner is Robert Smith, a billionaire who agreed to pay a fine of $139 million to the US Department of Justice in 2020 after enquiries into his tax arrangements.
ClassPass are taking money from studios (and teachers) – another example of a few being very wealthy while many struggle to survive. A studio owner wrote to me: “studio margins are thin at the very best of times…There just isn't room for the kind of cut ClassPass take…personally I would avoid the organisation for reasons of integrity.”
In my opinion, we need to encourage yoga students to avoid ClassPass and we need to support yoga studios in boycotting ClassPass. We can aspire for much better than many existing pay rates and for being financially bled by ClassPass.
PS Reviews on Trustpilot are fairly damning for ClassPass here.
