emttim
Contributor
Today I actually made some phone calls and attempted to get an idea of what instructors make, because obviously since any person will have bills to pay, salary is a concern whether someone wants to admit it or not. All I have to say is wow. I was told that in Key Largo at least, typically you're given a salary of $1,500 per month plus tips. Ok, here's the big issue I have with this. In Key Largo, they're charging ****ing $500 per person for a class, and if you're on salary, they can work you as much as they damn well please and you're getting table scraps while they're raking on a hell of a lot of money. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, I would assume not, but I have to say I'm simply amazed that some resorts will take advantage of their employees that much.
Is it normal to get paid salary or is it more typical to get paid per class? I would think it would be a lot more fair to get paid for how much you work, instead of a flat rate which sucks to begin with, or at least something along those lines. I'm aware life isn't fair, but there's a difference between life and ridiculous; I think this is the latter.
After finding that out, I'm half-tempted to just do Divemaster for my own knowledge and leave it at that. It's in someone else's signature on here, but as a professional, one should be expected to be paid as such. I don't see why anyone would work for a dive shop under those conditions when, strictly speaking from economics, if you wanted to be an instructor you could at least make a decent amount of money on the side (supplemented by another job since obviously if you're an independent then you won't have a steady flow of business which you may not have anyway in a dive shop) even when the cost of renting a classroom or pool is taken into account. And ironically, you could avoid the cost of renting a pool simply by teaching non-Open Water classes since OW is the only one that requires a pool to the best of my knowledge.
I dunno, there's not much of a point to this thread other than to rant at how ridiculous an instructor's pay is considering how ridiculously overpriced the classes are in Key Largo. I'll definitely be an independent instructor if I ever do decide to invest the time in it....I'm surprised to find something that pays even more poorly than being a paramedic but I'd say dive instructor qualifies.
Is it normal to get paid salary or is it more typical to get paid per class? I would think it would be a lot more fair to get paid for how much you work, instead of a flat rate which sucks to begin with, or at least something along those lines. I'm aware life isn't fair, but there's a difference between life and ridiculous; I think this is the latter.
After finding that out, I'm half-tempted to just do Divemaster for my own knowledge and leave it at that. It's in someone else's signature on here, but as a professional, one should be expected to be paid as such. I don't see why anyone would work for a dive shop under those conditions when, strictly speaking from economics, if you wanted to be an instructor you could at least make a decent amount of money on the side (supplemented by another job since obviously if you're an independent then you won't have a steady flow of business which you may not have anyway in a dive shop) even when the cost of renting a classroom or pool is taken into account. And ironically, you could avoid the cost of renting a pool simply by teaching non-Open Water classes since OW is the only one that requires a pool to the best of my knowledge.
I dunno, there's not much of a point to this thread other than to rant at how ridiculous an instructor's pay is considering how ridiculously overpriced the classes are in Key Largo. I'll definitely be an independent instructor if I ever do decide to invest the time in it....I'm surprised to find something that pays even more poorly than being a paramedic but I'd say dive instructor qualifies.
but it would be interesting to hear the other side.
