Yoga Teacher Pay

The average yoga teacher salary varies greatly. It can be as little as $27,000 to as much as $65,000 per year. Yoga teacher pay depends a lot on the type of environment and the region of the country in which you teach. As the practice of yoga continues to grow in popularity, however, there will be even higher demand for qualified yoga instructors. Yoga teacher pay can be per session, by the hour or even by the month.

Certification

While non-certified yoga teachers can be experts in the topic and have quite a few clients willing to pay high amounts per class, most instructors are certified through a yoga school that is registered with the Yoga Alliance. Yoga Alliance certification is not merely a prerequisite for the vast majority of yoga teaching jobs, but also provides you with a great deal of experience to draw upon in addition to your own yoga practice.

The Yoga Alliance certification makes you able to call yourself a Registered Yoga Trainer (RYT), or an Experienced Registered Yoga Trainer (ERYT), depending on the number of hours you spend in your yoga teacher training course. To be an ERYT, the number of hours of teaching experience plus the amount of personal practice you have put in are also important and taken into consideration.

Specialization

As with most other fields, the more qualified you are for your yoga teacher job, the greater your salary will become. Certified yoga teachers who have additional specialization and experience in, for example, teaching yoga to children, will receive higher salaries for children’s yoga classes than those who lack this specialization and experience.

Other examples of specializations that can increase your yoga teacher pay include that of yoga therapy and being able to teach meditation, stress management, prenatal and gentle yoga. There are also specializations for teaching yoga to people who have cancer, cardiac problems and children who have special needs.

Training Hours

The number of hours you spend in your yoga teacher training course also influences the amount of salary you can earn as a yoga instructor. Many basic yoga teacher trainings are 200 hour trainings, while the advanced trainings are 500 hours or more. The 200 hour trainings are typically those that provide you with the RYT status, while the 500 hour trainings can make you an ERYT. Specializations also add additional training hours.

Private Classes

The popularity of yoga amongst film stars and celebrities makes teaching yoga an even more lucrative profession if you create a reputation in the right group of people. Yoga teachers for the rich and famous can charge almost any rate they like for private classes if they have a great reputation amongst those they teach. In celebrity circles, it is very common for private yoga classes to cost approximately $250 per session.

Though $250 per session is a desirable salary, most yoga teachers actually make much less than that. The type of studio you teach in, the region, your experience, training and the number of classes and students you teach all factor into how much your pay is. Private classes are generally more lucrative than public sessions, however.

Studio Pay

In urban environments, yoga teachers in private studios make more money than those who teach in private rural studios. This is due to the higher ratio of students and more expensive class prices in big cities. Depending on the kind of studio you teach in, you can make between $20 to $40 per class. Teachers with more experience can sometimes earn more than this amount of money per class. If you teach yoga at a college, you can expect to earn around $30 per class.

Owning your own private yoga studio that attracts many students can help you earn more money as well, but can also get complicated due to the costs of renting the studio, maintaining it and paying for insurance, phone, internet and electrical bills.