Have Your Massage Fees Kept Up With The Local Ecomony?

Tamara Felix, PhD, LMT of The Right Touch had some great insights about massage fees. Read on….

One way to establish wellness massage fees is based on the local economy.

Our local gas prices are a federally regulated cost of living check. More expensive in Southern California where the cost of living is greater, for example, than in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the cost of living is a bit lower.

In the early 1990s when I was first introduced to massage therapy as a client, the average full hour wellness Swedish massage was $45, sometimes $50-$55, depending on location; a 15-minute (unit) seated massage was $10; and the average gallon of gasoline for premium was about 75 cents. A $45 hour ($10 unit) calculates at 75 cents per minute, the cost of a gallon of gasoline in my neighborhood at the time.

Since the early 1990s, the cost of living has increased (tremendously) and so has the educational requirements to become a massage therapist and maintain licensure or other credentialling and national certification.

If you will take a moment to think about it, all costs of living increase when the gallon of gasoline increases: groceries and household items are more due to the extra transport costs, utilities take a hike, real estate is worth more, and employees get pay raises.

Today, a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in my neighborhood (Portland, Oregon) is more than $2.50 per gallon, and closer to $4 per gallon in Southern California. Each more specialized gas is an additional 10 cents per gallon, with diesel at as much as 50 cents per gallon more than regular unleaded.

Establishing wellness massage fees based on the local economy, a basic wellness Swedish massage should have increased over time to about $150 per hour (based on $2.50 per minute/gallon of gasoline), and a 15-minute seated massage should have increased to about $40. And that doesn’t begin to cover the additional educational requirements, and more focused and specialized training most massage therapists practice.

Do you also have advanced training beyond Swedish? How many years experience do you have? Each year of experience and advanced training program you pay to learn are certainly worth 10 cents per minute! Just a thought.

How have your fees kept up with your local economy?????

Thanks Tamara. Now that’s food for thought?

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