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Massage Therapy Pay
Dear Fellow Therapists,
I've been in practice since 1995. I have a home office and have worked with a chiropractor since 1998. My chiropractor has retired and I've started looking for another place of employment for the two afternoons that I had worked for someone. I am wondering why therapists are starting out at a much lower pay scale than when I started. Is it because our profession is too saturated these days? It's driving me crazy. Back in 1995 when I graduated, I started working at a spa and was paid $35.00 on an hour massage. When my chiro retired I was making $45 on an hour massage. Every where that I'm looking it seems like therapists are only making $25 on an hour!!!!! How in the world has this pay decreased so much? After 21 years, I can't do that many massages in a day anymore to make a half decent living. Especially deep tissue work. I have been out of the game for some time. I'm comparing it to having to go back out into the dating scene after a divorce or something. Is anyone else seeing this? I have interviewed with chiropractors and talked to people that work for spas to attain this information. What has happened to our profession? anybody? I'm afraid I may just have to only work from home and advertise to Joe public which I hate to do for safety reasons. I do use a referral program with current clients that gives them a discount, but I enjoyed the more medical side being with a chiropractor two days a week. Any advice will be welcomed.....Kim
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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You are talking about what I have been indirectly complaining about in my thread TYPIPICAL EXPERIENCE. I make less money now then I did 25 years ago. And my skill set now, is so much more then it was 25 years ago. Our profession has no real lobby or leadership. People are going through these expansive schools. Learning all this detailed use less information. Passing all these exams, continiuing education requierments. Then end up working for $15 an hour in some chain. I know this for a fact.. The best Chiropractors and Physical therapists, that make tons more money then any Massage therapist, are doing lots of soft tissue work.. Some exclusively. The MAXIMUM potential for our profession is not being taught in any school. An example in a massage text bood I recently looked at said... If you think you have carpal tunnel. go to a medical doctor for exam and treatment... I don't know if those were the exact words, but thats what they were teaching. Truth of the matter is. The right soft tissue work cures carpal tunnel. Its a joke. I have met more then one massage therapist that told me they are going to see MDs, Chiroprators, and Physical therapist because they have carpal tunnel. I pull them to the side.. Show them how to fix themselves.. And in a week or two. Their so called carpal tunnel is gone. And these people have passed all the exams, all this and that...And they don't have a concept about carpal tunnel. You know how much money is spent on carpal tunnel?? Its usually an easily fixed problem.. I know Im a little off the subject, but with the right schooling and political back up. We would be the go to guys for a lot of pain problems, carpal tunnel included.. Its a $600 billion dollar a year industry( pain industry). Our schools should be geared towards that. Our pay would go up.. You would not even be asking this question about pay. Right now, the pay we get, is deserved.. Because we are not taught truth or empowerment.. We are just taught to fit in.. Im telling everyone, the leading Osteopathes, Chiropractors, and Pyhsical therapists are heavy into soft tissue work. I applied for work in a chiropractic office a while ago... Ive been doing this 30 years. They hired a 20 year old therapist that just got out of school. Thats because, correct soft tissue work, is powerful. Lets just keep the slaves in their place.. lol I was lucky enough to live in states that required no continiuing education requierments in order to maintain your Massage license. So I studied, Osteopathic, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, and Physical Therapy continiuing education requierments.. Focusing only on soft tissue work. The stuff they were teaching was well within our license. I will post a video clip in the attachment of an example of what Ive learned. Its mind blowing compared to whats being taught in these expense massage schools. Our pay is low on purpose. The general public as well as most of the medical profession doesnt know the potential of good soft tissue work. Thats why I write in here. TYPICAL EXPERIENCE. Check it out. Your question and perplextion of what you are experiencing , points clearly to the direction of our profession, which is into the gutter. Check out the attatcment... See what soft tissue work can do. Whats not being taught to massage therapists. Uhm. ok, I have a weak internet connection... I cant do an attachment now. I will post it following this comment when my connection improves.
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Permalink Reply by Kim Kirkman Lmt on
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thanks for reply..I was starting to think I was the only one and/or going to the wrong places. We used to make 70%. I know a business has to make money though with all the overhead. If I wasn't able to work from home, I wouldn't make a dime. Classes are real expensive for c.e.u's too! makes me glad I went to school when it was $6 grand instead of $10 plus...I will probably no longer be recommending this as a career choice unfortunately...
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We don't need to be lowest level on the totem pole. Our schools training and focus needs to be re-engineered in order to get our profession out of this low level compensation. Massage is the best of all medical fields when it comes to relaxation and stress reduction. Medical doctors, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, and Physical therapists can't compete with us on that level. However, they are the go to guys when it comes to the pain industry. We could also be the go to guys. Some of the most advanced people in those fields are doing, guess what?.....Soft tissue work.
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advanced soft tissue work.
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I got lucky! starting out at a new gym for $35 to go up to $40 after 3 months and given gym membership..I was able to advise on table, sheets, room set up, pick my days/hours. They will supply everything but lotion, washer on site....hope everything works out...glad to find supplemental income...Best of luck to everyone in our field. After hearing how one therapist acted at this place (would cancel already booked appts, etc) I feel some type of business class should be implemented even psych class too cause it helped me having a secretarial office job as a first career to be business oriented...
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@Gordon W: I think one reason a lot of people go doctor or pt is probably because it's covered under insurance whre we are more out of pocket spent. that's why I will miss working for a chiro that billed insurance..they did state, they were glad to be getting out of the insurance game.
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True, but my point is... A lot of this carpal tunnel, especially with massage therapists is really a repetive stress injury, over used muscles from our work. The right self massage technques, you can fix yourself. I mean an electical massager on your forearms, hands and fingers every night will do it. You don't even need to stop working. Thats pretty much right 90% of the time. That should be well established in the training of every massage therapist by the time they graduate from school. Actually, even non massage therapists should know that.. It would probubly save a billion dollars a year in cost and work loss. Most, not all, but most that have been given that diagnosis.. When you palpate, have really sore forearm and hand muscles. Its muscle pain, not nerve pain, most of the time. Massage is really good for sore muscles. Yet a massage therapist that works on sore muscles, runs to a chiropractor , MD, or PT. ? That just bugs me. I have a really good electrical massager. I use it on my forearms almost every night. It works.
Kim Kirkman Lmt said:@Gordon W: I think one reason a lot of people go doctor or pt is probably because it's covered under insurance whre we are more out of pocket spent. that's why I will miss working for a chiro that billed insurance..they did state, they were glad to be getting out of the insurance game.
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