Salary is very misleading! Personal trainers are paid on a commission based on what the client paid for training (which is common) HOWEVER, all remaining hours worked (40 hours minus "client paid" training hours equals, free labor). This free labor is mandatory and consists of giving complimentary training sessions that come with gym membership, cleaning duties, booths, meetings etc. Since they only hire "full-time" employees, this often consists of 10-30 hours a week! This is made possible because they do pay trainers a wage for all hours worked, but only as a "draw" and must be paid back. For example, you performed 10 training sessions (hours), and say your pay/commission was $50 per session, that would yield $500, yet, you still worked another 30 hours (as required to be full-time) doing free training sessions that the club gives their members, cleaning, etc. You weekly gross pay would still only be $500. In this case, your salary comes close to only min wage! If you change the variables in this scenario, and say you still worked 40 hours but only 3 of them were from actual paying clients thus making $150 in your commission cut, the company would then pay you the additional amount needed so that you made at least minimum wage for the Entire week (so if min wage is $10 hr, they would give you a check for $400). However! $250 of that is considered a "draw" ($400 - $150), and you must pay that back (automatically taken from you check whenever your gross is more than your hours worked times minimum wage. Hence, free labor. Not sure how this is legal. If you get to the point where you are actually executing 40 hours of "client paid" personal training hours, then you can make great money for working at a gym!
