Stylist productivity

How many services a day does a chair need to pay for itself?

Every chair has to clear its own wage and overhead before it earns you anything. This shows the break-even point, the spare room in the day, and where you sit against the old 3-times-wages rule.

Loaded cost per worked hour

Base wage + super (12%) + leave + workers comp. Roughly base × 1.3.

Stylist base hourly wage (ex super)

Hair & Beauty Award is a ballpark — verify at fairwork.gov.au.

Rostered hours per day

Productive (chair) hours of that day

Hours actually doing paid services, not breaks or downtime.

Days worked per week

Average service price (ex GST)

Service revenue only, before the 10% GST.

Average service length (mins)

Overhead allocated to this chair per day

Rent, power, software share for one chair, one day.

Product cost % of service price

This stylist's weekly service revenue (ex GST)

Services a day just to break even

6.6

At 75 a service, this chair needs $496 a day before it makes you a cent. You've got room for about 1.4 more on top.

Daily cost to cover

$456

Loaded wage plus this chair's share of overhead.

Spare capacity per day

1.4

Services left in the day after break-even.

Revenue vs base wage

2.0×

Rule of thumb says aim for 3 times the base wage.

Weekly shortfall to 3x

$1,240

Extra weekly service revenue to hit the 3x mark.

Where it goes

Capacity (services/day)8

Break-even (services/day)6.6

Break-even uses the loaded cost per hour (base wage plus super and on-costs) times rostered hours, plus the chair's daily overhead, divided by the contribution per service (price ex GST minus product cost). The 3x check is a separate lens: weekly service revenue against base wage times 3 — base wage on purpose, since that's how the rule of thumb is normally framed. All figures are ex GST (add 10% for what the customer pays). The 3x rule is an industry rule of thumb, not a legal or accounting standard. Award rates (Hair & Beauty MA000005) are a ballpark — verify at fairwork.gov.au. Not tax or legal advice.

A working tool, not financial advice. It uses the figures and assumptions you enter — check them against your own numbers and your accountant before any pricing, wage or financial decision. Award and tax figures change (often each 1 July); verify current rates at fairwork.gov.au and ato.gov.au. Shear Profit gives no tax or financial advice.

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