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Important: A hired groomer paid by commission is 99% of the time still an "employee" according to I.R.S. regulations. Being paid by commission alone does not conclude that an employee is actually an "independent contractor." Commission is just a way of calculating gross wages subject to payroll deductions like any other U.S. employee. Yes, you may find some grooming business owners saying their groomers are independent contractors, but it's so rare we advise, "Beware!" As management consultants we have handled many such cases where the I.R.S. has stepped in and reminded owners that their groomers were employees, not independent contractors and the fines and penalties were severe.  If you don't believe us, complete an I.R.S. Form SS# 8 describing the conditions of employment in your grooming business. Upon review the I.R.S. will make a determination whether your groomers are independent contractors or employees. We have done several variations and the I.R.S. came back every time saying the groomers were employees. Some of the key points of the determination were 1) if a worker cannot take their work home with them they are an employee, and 2) if they have to show up on a schedule set by the business, they are employees, not independent contractors. Owners are required to withhold payroll taxes from employee paychecks as well as contribute additional employer taxes. Owners are not required to withhold payroll taxes from independent contractors and instead only have to report to the I.R.S. how much they paid independent contractors on an annual basis.

Sometimes commission groomers do not do the pre-bathing, bathing and drying chores and "pay" or reimburse the owner for this work done by a hired "pet bather" or "bather/brusher" employee. Most "bathers" are paid hourly, although there are owners that pay them by commission. Prior to the 1970's it was not uncommon for bathers to be paid by piecework, in other words "per bath job." Today, most bather employees are paid hourly and sometimes salary for full-time experienced workers.

So if there are other ways to pay full-charge groomers besides commission, what are they? There are thousands of grooming business owners in the U.S. now paying full-charge groomers either hourly or salary, and not by commission. Indeed, 30% of grooming business owners completing our 2000 survey here at PetGroomer.com claimed they were not paying by commission any more. Beware! Commissions versus salaries is a very controversial topic, perhaps only second to cage drying. Indeed, in some parts of the U.S. you will find very few owners that pay by salaries either by choice, or they claim they cannot find groomers to work for anything other than commission. There is a lot of truth in that statement too. However, we know owners that say they would never, and never have, paid groomers or bathers by commission. In fact, we never paid by commission in 26 years while owning one of the world's largest salons, and the new owner hasn't paid by commission in 15 years! We rarely had any problem finding full-charge groomers either because we used Madson Team Trimming Operations and the quality of the grooming satisfied about 5,000 regular clients.

One of our primary services as management consultants to grooming business owners is to help them with the very large and often emotional task to convert from commission wage structures to salary based wages without losing employees. It's not that we require them to convert as a fair percentage of our clients do pay by commission. It's their choice. However most of our confident clients that have taken on the task to convert to salaries tell us it was heartily worth the effort. Perhaps the most ironic factor in conversions is that groomers truly fear salaries thinking they will lose wages, but in over 100 conversions we managed the groomers never lost a penny in wage rates. Not a penny. Yes, some groomers do rebel and threaten owners when asked to convert to salaries, and some do quit, even when the owner offered more pay by salary, more pay than ever could be earned by the groomer on commission. We said our experience was ironic, and we have many stories of actual cases we share at our workshops.

Well, we're not going to take sides here but provide information. As a business owner you have compensation choices, and we support your choice. It's not a matter of right or wrong, but our experience owning a major grooming business was quite pleasant and somewhat problem-free overall. If you have a serious interest in salary based systems that have been proven for more than 40 years in the U.S. without trauma, please see our corporate site at www.groomingbusinessinabox.com.

Other than dollars and cents pay issues, there are distinct reasons why we don't prefer commission based wages whether we are the employees or the employers. These vital reasons affect the work environment of the entire pet grooming industry and explain why there many businesses that do have a hard time finding qualified groomers and maintaining a pleasant working environment. Let's take a closer look on the next page.