One of the tenets upon which this studio is built is the belief that faculty and staff are more than just expenses, but are valuable professionals deserving of respect and this starts with compensation and benefits.
When I started hiring associate teachers, I was horrified to learn that the industry standard for teacher compensation is somewhere in the vicinity of $30-40/hr. $40/hr being much rarer, and some places pay as low as $20 – 25/hr. Additionally, the $30 – 45 / hr is paid as a 1099 and not as a W2. Not to dive too deep into it but if you’re paid $30 – 40 / hr on a 1099, your tax bill is super high so really you’re only making the equivalent $27.70 – 36.94 / hr if it were paid on a W2. This may seem adequate but as a teacher, because it’s such an intense job, you really can’t work a full 40 hrs / wk without burning yourself out. Which means you’re not able to give your best to your students. Teachers tend to quit or not do great work because they’re not respected and they’re stressed out.
Additionally, on a 1099, if one wants to own their own home or even make rent, one has to provide three years of financial documentation.
I felt all this was unacceptable and also not fair to the clients because they deserve a nurturing, positive environment with a well-rested, enthusiastic, and valued teacher. And further, they deserve to take with people who are good enough to teach at the university level or for high-level industry (such as Broadway, majour record labels, etc) or have enough skill to deal with any vocal problems (such as voice injuries, nodules, etc – these are super common even in amateur voices we get for 1st lessons). You’re not going to get super high-level teachers with $35/hr on a 1099.
Additionally, teachers are generally not given paid time off to renew themselves and maintain the mindset that is needed for such a demanding vocation. So no paid vacation days, no paid holidays, no paid sick leave. Sucksville.
Adding to this, instructors with degrees are typically saddled with student loan debt from the degrees they got in order to be the best teacher they can be. This is super beneficial to the studio and clients, but they’re expected to make student loan payments on a $56 – 57K / yr salary (at most) as well as rent. A doctorate at an ivy league costs $100K minimum, so if you’re exceedingly well-trained, the numbers for working for a studio while paying student loans don’t make sense. Which is probably why a lot of teachers don’t get them.
For these reasons and in order to provide the highest quality voice lesson I could manage, we give the following benefits for full-time (32 hrs / wk) teachers:
* Non-sucky medical insurance
* Student loan repayment assistance up to the maximum passed by Congress in 2020
* Paid Sick leave
* Paid Holidays when they fall on a teaching day
* Paid 2-week vacation for 0-4 years of employment, 3 week for 5-9 years, 4 weeks for 10-14 years, etc
* Free voice, music production, and songwriting lessons from any of our teachers
* Continuing education instruction from world-class professionals
* Our voice teachers make over $50/hr on a W2
* Holiday bonuses like any other high-level professional would get
Do we make less profit because of these benefits? Yes! Is it worth thee money? Also yes!
One of my goals is for this to become the industry standard. Because musicians – and employees – need to be treated better. And because I love our faculty and staff as much as I love our clients. And even if I didn’t, I’d still do this because if you love your clients like I do, you try to provide them with the best lessons — and that means motivated, happy teachers and staff who have the personal resources to care about their work.