Based on industry standards, the pay is awful.
Massage Envy chooses to charge the same amount for deep tissue massage and Swedish massage, based on the idea that each client should receive a customized service. This results in many clients seeking and expecting deep tissue at massage envy, because it is both desired and cheap, without having any understanding of how much work goes into a deep tissue session. Many of these clients are also not great tippers, and half of a massage therapist’s income at any given spa is generally from tips. So, the expected work output is often not appropriately compensated.
Clients are told that they have a 60 minute service, of which 5 minutes is for consultation and 5 minutes is for dressing and undressing, for a total of 50 minutes hands on. This is fine. However, massage Envy does not build turn-over time into this, and the process of turning over a room (changing sheets, changing the head rest cover, and sanitizing everything), and washing one’s hands and arms takes at least 2-3 minutes. Massage Envy books clients back-to-back without considering this turn-around time, so the only way to give the one client what they’re paying for (an actual 60 minute service) results in being late for the next client, because the entire process takes at least 63 minutes. If a massage therapist doesn’t want to cut a client’s time, whether that cuts into consultation time or hands-on time, the massage therapist ends up running late — which often irritates further clients (unless they are regulars) as well as front desk staff.
I’ve worked at three separate massage Envy franchises, all owned by different people. Not a single one has offered real health insurance at an affordable rate, which is ironic given the company’s focus on wellness. One would hope that a company branding itself as a company that cares about health and wellness would invest in that of its employees. Massage Envy doesn’t live up to this hope.
Of these three separate franchises, none have offered paid vacation time off, and none have offered sick days. Again — for a company that brands itself as caring about health and wellness, it’s treatment of its employees is ironic in the worst way. Most franchises have offered Aflac, but that isn’t at all equivalent to the benefits that would accompany a salaried job.
There is minimal upward mobility. Some franchises offer pay raises after a certain period of time. Others don’t. If performance is good, raises should simply happen — regardless of individual franchise ownership. This should be a company-wide policy. Or...massage therapists should be paid well from the start. I get that Massage Envy’s business model requires that it offer a low cost massage to clients. But this model is inherently exploitive of the people providing a therapeutic service. So, I believe that my underlying issue with Massage Envy as a whole is its main purpose of offering massage at a low rate to clients.
