Yoga Class Pricing - What’s Fair?

Do you ever notice that when we’re considering fair pricing for yoga, we often only think of students? Listen, I’m in favor of making yoga accessible for all people and financial situations. As a matter of fact, making yoga accessible is a passion of mine. I enjoy leading Karma classes, offering discounted classes, and donation-based classes, but I won’t undermine the practice by “low-balling” the industry or myself.

MINIMUM WAGE

The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. If I set my classes for $10/hour, I am making less than minimum wage.

HOW DO YOU FIGURE?

Yoga teachers do not come to class and make up classes on the fly. We take time to consider our students’ needs and create rough drafts of our classes, practice them, edit them, practice them, and then come up with a final draft that we bring to class.

This process can take an hour or more and this is just for a general public class.

If I were to charge minimum wage for the general classes I lead, I’d actually be charging students $14.50/class on the low end.

Note: This doesn’t include the cost of training and continuing education, wear and tear on equipment, and other materials used to lead a yoga class.

VALUE YOUR TIME, WORK, EDUCATION, & PRACTICE

Training is not cheap. Our time is precious. Money is an energy exchange to reflect this.

When I complete my YTT500, my class prices will reflect this with a slight increase. It only makes sense. A school teacher with a Master’s Degree makes more than the teacher with the Bachelor’s Degree. The manager at McDonald’s makes more than the one flipping burgers (who all make more per hour than most yoga teachers, by the way).

Education is valuable.

When you compare the cost to other wellness services like massage, Reiki/other energy work, facials/other spa services, and gym sessions, yoga is affordably priced.

Teachers, your time is valuable. Your knowledge is valuable.

Yoga is a valuable practice.

Many try to argue that a spiritual practice should not have a price tag, but the fact is, it always has. In the beginning, practitioners may not have given money to learn, but they left their families and homes to devote their entire lives to learning the practice. Some became beggars for food, with their alms bowls, so that they could continue to practice. Yoga has always come with a price.

With dedication, Yoga is a life-changing, healing practice.

Honor this and price accordingly.🤎

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