~$400 is about what you are going to pay.
When you see agency's throw their own instructors under the bus even when they follow the written standards you'll understand this is all part of the game.
Agencies outsource the risk and costs to instructors and DMs.
Don't have any incentive to revise even the riskiest standards (have you seen the DSD ratio threads?).
Shops push high ratio classes - they're within standards right?
Most of the time they go "just fine"
Occasionally there is a problem, possibly even a fatality
Blame the instructor/DM - oh well they are replaceable
Repeat expectations that instructors and DMs foot the bill for ever escalating liability coverage.
There's a continual crop of new instructors and DMs who buy into this asinine business model to "live the dream"
Don't work for free. You are worth more than that and you run the risk of losing everything for a temporary nugget of DM prestige.
Oh man, when I crossed over to SSI, my IT (former shop manager, GUE's "biggest fan"
) reminded me that SSI requires each instructor must have an emergency action plan for each dive site for where they teach.
Since I was at a shop chain, I asked, "So does <shop name> have ones for each dive site where courses are taught?" (there are not that many dive sites used for training in the Puget Sound.
IT answers "
Oh no, the shop would never assume that kind of liability!"
So the max an instructor would get for open water is $50 per student, we already pay our own insurance and agency fees, and the shop doesn't even want to address a possible issue. The risk/reward ratio is completely out of whack.
Yeah, I like being independent.
Now in hindsight, if I wasn't going to open a dive op for an early/active retirement in Greece, there's no way I'd become an instructor.
To be fair, there is one instructor in our area that has two training deaths and is still teaching from what I've heard.