(Of course, the cost to clients for the most experienced trainers can top $100 an hour-and an elite Tier 4 trainer at Equinox might make $60 or more of that.) In between sessions, while helping restock towels or handle paperwork, few trainers earn more than the hourly base pay. While clients pay an average of $60 to $70 per hour, according to the National Board of Fitness Educators, on average trainers receive only $25-less than half. While working for the “big box gyms” like Equinox or Bally Total Fitness, Levi explains, “You are an employee of the company, but the meat and potatoes of it is that you’re operating in the manner of an independent contractor, you just have a company taking a percentage.” Fitness chains often hire trainers at an hourly rate- typically at or close to minimum wage-which is supplemented by a system of commissions on each training session, with rates that escalate with experience. But even personal trainers who are technically gym employees may not experience the conditions that employees in other industries value. The BLS puts the share of independent contractors far lower, at 10 percent. According to a 2010 national survey by the American Council on Exercise, nearly half of all personal trainers work as independent contractors, though a majority are employees. Bureau of Labor Statistics, median pay for fitness trainers is quite low-$ 34,980 a year, well below the median household income of $53,657. Yet according to 2014 figures from the U.S. Health clubs have become a $24 billion industry in the U.S. (Asked about Levi’s account, Equinox declined to comment, citing a policy of not speaking about personnel matters.) Whenever a regular client took a vacation to Tahoe or a business trip to Kuala Lumpur, Levi took a hit to his take-home pay. Yet even maintaining that stressful pace-which he knew he couldn’t-he rarely brought home more than $50,000 a year, while his lower-tier co-workers would earn far less. (For downtime between sessions, which he used for planning, he was paid minimum wage.) He had a good health plan with dental insurance. He recalls one Silicon Valley vice president who appreciated just talking about movies, being treated like “a dude.” As Levi used to tell clients, “You’re going to pay a lot, but you’re going to get a lot, too.”Īs a Tier 3+ trainer hitting his Equinox session targets, Levi got a payout of around $45 per session, he recalls, far more than Tier 1s, who got around $20. When he asked how Equinox arrived at its ranking, he was told, “It’s how many sessions you’ve done.”Īt the Equinox in San Mateo, California, Levi cultivated a warm rapport with his wealthy clientele: housewives able to afford “an arm and a leg” in membership fees, top managers at tech firms. As a “master instructor” who mentored less experienced trainers, he had finally garnered recognition for his teaching ability-the time and attention he offered his clients and the dramatic progress they made. and Canada (it now has 83), he ranked No. One day in 2010, Levi learned that of the more than 1,800 personal trainers then working for Equinox’s 56 clubs in the U.S. A loquacious Tennessee native with a boyish grin and hemp-rope abs, Levi has an elaborate back tattoo of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, surrounded by an interplanetary dreamscape that suggests a clandestine wild side. Philip Levi, who worked at an Equinox in Silicon Valley from 2009 to 2014, used to be one of them. And at the heart of its product is a small army of “science-fueled” personal trainers. With Kiehl’s hair and body products in the locker rooms and “eco-chic amenities” such as sustainable cork floors, Equinox promises epic workouts and unexpected luxuries to a clientele primarily of coastal elites. In the big business of upscale gyms, Equinox soars above its rivals. This article was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.
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