Nail salon pricing: price by the chair-hour, not by the salon next door

The salon down the corridor just raised its prices. Should you follow?

Their price list tells you what clients will accept. It can't tell you whether you make money.

Part 1Why price per chair-hour

Your salon sells time in a chair. A table or a pedicure chair is only open so many hours a week, so the useful question about any service is how much of that time it takes and what it pays. Spa research uses exactly this yardstick, revenue per available treatment-room hour (Kimes and Singh, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 2009). In a nail salon the room is a chair. And the hour includes the minutes spent cleaning and resetting before the next client sits down.

The Australian Beauty Association lists pricing that hasn't kept pace as the first reason busy salons aren't profitable, and warns against copying competitors. One owner quoted in Professional Beauty adds up her costs for the week, divides by her open hours and prices treatments from that hourly figure plus a margin. Same idea, in an owner's words.

Part 2A real menu, worked through

Southland Natural Nails & Beauty at Westfield Southland publishes its whole menu on Fresha, with service times. Most menus don't show minutes, which is why we picked it. It isn't our client. We added our own reset times: 5 minutes at a manicure table, 15 to clean and refill a pedicure spa.

None of this means you should drop full sets, only that you now know which hours they belong in.

Part 3Set a minimum price per hour from your wages

The other half of the sum is what an hour of that chair costs. For most salons that's mainly the technician. Under the Hair and Beauty Award, a permanent Level 2 employee costs A$31.86 an hour on weekdays, A$42.38 on Saturday and A$63.73 on Sunday with 12% super, from 1 July 2026 (the details are in our Hair and Beauty Award guide for salon owners).

Pick a wage share, then divide

Decide what share of takings you're willing to spend on the technician's wage. The ATO benchmarks for beauty services show labour at roughly 23% to 39% of turnover depending on size.

For a salon run mostly by employees, 35% to 45% is a realistic planning range.

Divide the hourly cost by that share. Add GST back on. That's your floor.

That's what a booked hour needs to earn, GST included, for a permanent Level 2 employee, and every empty minute in the shift pushes the figure higher.

Lay the two tables side by side and the problem is plain. On a weekday, 6 of the 10 main services clear the 45% line when the technician is busy. On a Sunday, none do. A shellac deluxe manicure with chrome earns about A$108 an hour against a 45% line of A$156, so Sunday only works with a higher wage share, the owner on the floor, or very lean staffing, and that's why Sunday pricing, staffing and service mix deserve more of your attention than any other day.

Part 4Three ways to make a weekend hour earn more

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Sell the add-on every time

An A$25 add-on in 10 minutes lifts the whole hour, so put the options on the table where the client can see them.

Part 5A price list that works harder

• Show the time next to the price. A luxury pedicure makes sense at A$110 when the client sees it takes 55 minutes, and you book more accurately.
• Group add-ons under each service instead of a separate list at the bottom.
• Review once a year, after Award rates change on 1 July, using the two tables above.

Want the bigger picture, from seats to roster to profit? Read how much does a nail salon make.

Self-check6 questions about your menu

Sources and method. Menu and times: the example salon's Fresha page, 18 October 2026. Reset times: our assumption (5 minutes for a table, 15 for a pedicure spa). Wages: Fair Work pay guide MA000005 from 1 July 2026, Level 2, plus 12% super. Labour range: ATO beauty services (2023-24 data). All other figures are our arithmetic. This guide is general information, not financial or tax advice.