Pay guide

What to Check in a Dog Grooming Job Offer

The headline rate is the least informative number in a grooming offer. These are the questions that decide what you actually take home.

Two grooming offers with the same commission rate can pay very different money, and an offer with a lower rate can be the better one. The difference is almost always in terms that are mentioned briefly, if at all, during the interview. Here is what to pin down before you say yes.

The pay structure itself

Which structure is it? Hourly only, commission only, hourly vs. commission (whichever is higher), or a base plus commission bonus. These produce different pay for the same week. See hourly vs. commission pay, explained if any of them are unfamiliar.
The exact rates. The hourly rate, the commission percentage, and any tiers, with the specific milestone that moves you to the next tier.
Daily or pay period comparison. On whichever-is-higher pay, ask whether the comparison is made each day or across the whole pay period. Daily comparison pays more in uneven weeks. The break-even guide shows how much.
Training period pay. Many salons pay hourly only while you train or work as a bather. Ask how long that lasts and what triggers the move to commission.

What the commission is calculated on

Is commission on the full service price, or on a reduced base after product or supply charges?
Which add-ons count, by name: nails, ears, teeth, de-shedding, medicated baths, glands.
Whose revenue drops when a manager discounts a groom?
Is commission clawed back on a redo or a complaint?
Is there separate retail commission?

The workload behind the numbers

How many dogs a full-time groomer at this salon typically books per day, and who controls the book.
Whether you are expected to bathe your own dogs or a bather does it.
Typical service prices for the breeds the salon sees most. Commission is a share of price, so price matters as much as rate.
How cancellations and no-shows are handled, and whether you are sent home unpaid on a slow day.

Tips, pay timing and the paperwork

Are tips 100 percent yours, or pooled or split with bathers?
How are card tips paid, and when?
Pay period length and pay date.
Are you an employee or an independent contractor? This decides who pays which taxes. The booth rental guide covers what changes.
Benefits, paid time off, and whether you supply your own tools.

A worked comparison of two offers

Offer A pays $17 an hour or 45 percent commission, whichever is higher, compared weekly. Offer B pays 50 percent commission only. Assume a 32 hour week at an average groom price of $70.

A busy week, 18 dogs, $1,260 revenue. Offer A: hourly is $544, commission is $567, so you are paid $567. Offer B: $630. B is $63 ahead.

A slow week, 12 dogs, $840 revenue. Offer A: hourly is $544, commission is $378, so you are paid $544. Offer B: $420. A is $124 ahead.

Across those two weeks, Offer A averages $555.50 and Offer B averages $525. The offer with the lower commission rate pays more, because its hourly floor catches the slow week. If your weeks are reliably busy, B wins. If they swing, A does. You can only tell which describes you by tracking a few real weeks.

Get it in writing

Ask for the pay terms in an offer letter or written pay plan, including the structure, every rate and tier, what is commissionable, and how tips are handled. A verbal summary at the interview is easy to remember differently six months later. Once you start, log each week so you can check your paycheck against the agreement. The calculators on this site are built for exactly that.