Career Focus - Hairdressing

Check out the pay, prospects, players and key talking points of careers in Hairdressing 2007-8.

The Pay

Useful link(s)
National Minimum Wage Helpline or call 0845 6000 678
Habia
Report on Awareness of Min. Wage in Hairdressing


• Still among the lowest paid...
  According to the annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office of National Statistics, hairdressing is still one of the ten lowest paid professions in the UK, with hairdressers earning, on average, £219 per week gross, just above kitchen and catering assistants.
• Still a bit confused about the minimum wage
  In a series of surveys conducted for the Low Pay Commission, only a minority of people surveyed could correctly identify the minimum wage rates and when they apply. Almost everyone knew the adult min. wage is payable from age 22, but only 58% knew that the pay rate for 16-17-year-olds is lower. Alarmingly, just 8% of salon owners and managers taking part in a telephone survey were fully conversant with the minimum wage.

Min Pay Rates


• For staff aged 22+: £5.35/hr
• For staff aged 18-21: £4.25/hr
• For staff aged 16-17: £3/hr

But, if you’re on an apprenticeship:

• Apprentices under age 19 are not entitled to the min. wage
• Apprentices aged 19-25 who are in the first 12 months of their apprenticeship are not entitled to the min. wage; they’re entitled after the first 12 months

• Women earning more?!
  Probably because there are far more of them – 86% of the industry is female. Average hourly earnings in 2006 were £5.65 for males vs £6.11 for female hairdressers.

The propspects

• Enough jobs? Yes; Enough skills? No
  According to industry standard-setter, Habia, there are currently some 2,000 hairdressing vacancies, and 95% of employers expect to employ the same or more staff in the next 12 months. But that doesn’t mean they’ll all be filled, as the industry is also experiencing some skills shortages. In hairdressing, the main technical skills shortages are in long hairdressing, hair extensions and colour correction. In barbering, they’re not fussy – they’ve got skills shortages in all job categories!
• Fancy your chances of working for a big hairdressing chain?
  Sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems that 43% of hairdressing outlets employ just five or fewer people, and 68% employ ten or fewer people. 85% of hairdressing salons are single outlet businesses (ie they’re definitely not a chain), and the big boys – Vidal Sassoon, Regis, Toni and Guy et al – represent about just 2% of outlets, so you do the maths! The good news is that there’s a fair chunk of mid-size hairdressing chains around, consisting of 3 or 4 outlets, and some offer their own, respected in-house training.
• Ethnic minorities need not apply?
  One of the shock statistics to emerge from recent surveys of hairdressing is that, while women are more than well represented, ethnic minorities are, apparently, not. Over half the hairdressing workforce is aged 16-34, yet only 4% of recruits come from the ethnic minority population. Given that a high proportion of the ethnic minority population is made of up young people, this is a substantial under-representation…

The talking points

• Just what counts as an ‘apprenticeship’?
  Nice try, Mr Salon Manager. But that so-called in-salon training you’re offering doesn’t necessarily count as an ‘apprenticeship’, which means you may well be liable for paying the minimum wage. To count as an apprenticeship, and therefore to allow you to avoid paying the minimum wage, the training course has to be accredited, and has to involve funding and supervision from and by an external, government-recognised third party, eg an FE college.

Good places to network
British Hairdressing Awards
Or try
Habia's still quite new talkboards


• Does anyone else think the new 14-19 hairdressing diploma is a waste of time?
  Habia is right behind it, and is taking the lead in setting it up. It is meant to offer school-age pupils a taster of a career as a hairdresser and, more than that, a formal diploma qualification. But critics are complaining that it will keep 16-year-olds in school, and not in the salon, which is where they ought to be trained. And with the government’s push to encourage more pupils to stay in school and then move on to university, the steady flow of out-of-school sixteen-year-olds on which the hairdressing industry relies may well slowdown to a trickle.
• Happy are the hairdressers...
  Apparently, despite the low pay, hairdressers still make the happiest employees in the land. Two out of every five hairdressers say they are happy with their lot. One explanation from City & Guilds, who conducted the survey, is that it’s all down to the relationship they have with their clients – hairdressers make people feel and look good, and that’s reward enough! Another factor is that many of them have the opportunity to be their own boss – that’s probably closer to the truth. Apparently, half as many beauticians say they’re happy with their lot.