Pay data
Salon manager salary in 2026
The median salary is $48,590 and the top tenth earns $75,330, so the number that matters here is the spread rather than the middle.
Published
Edited by Zoe MacDougall, BS in Psychology
How much do salon managers make in 2026?
Salon managers make a median salary of $48,590 a year in 2026, or $23.36 an hour, across 114,110 people on a payroll nationally in the May 2025 OEWS release, which is the most recent published. The mean is $52,360, 8% above the median, and the gap between the two is the first thing worth noticing: an average pulled that far above the midpoint means a minority earning a great deal more than the middle.
Salon managers are paid more than the chairs they supervise, and paid more reliably: the bottom tenth of this occupation earns more than the median cosmetologist. What the job gives up is the top end, because a manager is on a salary while a stylist with a full book is on commission.
Before you use these numbers
This BLS occupation covers supervisors of personal service workers generally, not salon managers specifically. Only a quarter of the people in it work in personal care services at all, with the rest spread across child care, amusement and residential facilities, so read it as the shape of first-line supervision in service work rather than as a salon number.
What is the full salary range for salon managers in 2026?
The full salary range for salon managers in 2026 runs from $34,010 at the bottom tenth to $75,330 at the top tenth, a factor of 2.2. Half of them earn between $39,050 and $61,100, which is the band a reader should plan around rather than the single median figure.
- Bottom 10% $34,010 $34,010
- Lower quarter $39,050 $39,050
- Median $48,590 $48,590
- Upper quarter $61,100 $61,100
- Top 10% $75,330 $75,330
Annual figures are hourly wages multiplied by 2,080 hours, which assumes full-time year-round work. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Which states pay salon managers the most in 2026?
The states paying salon managers the most in 2026 are Rhode Island at $60,680, Washington at $59,980, and New York at $58,900. Across every state that publishes a figure, the best-paying is 62% above the worst, and none of it is adjusted for what living there costs.
| State | Median | Bottom 10% | Top 10% | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | $60,680 | $36,440 | $80,030 | 460 |
| Washington | $59,980 | $46,560 | $86,820 | 1,440 |
| New York | $58,900 | $38,020 | $80,060 | 8,580 |
| Vermont | $58,490 | $38,580 | $68,610 | 200 |
| Oregon | $58,240 | $44,370 | $68,840 | 2,300 |
| District of Columbia | $56,670 | $46,000 | $84,610 | 260 |
| California | $56,110 | $37,460 | $77,700 | 9,390 |
| Hawaii | $54,950 | $43,870 | $85,030 | 740 |
| Colorado | $54,530 | $37,380 | $84,090 | 3,160 |
| New Jersey | $54,330 | $36,500 | $83,200 | 4,640 |
The median salon manager salary by state comes from OEWS state estimates for 39-1022, and is not adjusted for cost of living.
At the other end, the lowest published medians are Oklahoma at $37,390, Mississippi at $37,910, West Virginia at $38,120, Louisiana at $38,670, Iowa at $38,780.
51 of the 51 jurisdictions publish a median for this occupation. A state missing from it is one BLS withheld for a small sample, not one paying nothing.
Do these figures include self-employed salon managers?
These figures do not include self-employed salon managers. The OEWS survey collects from employers, so everyone who works for themselves is outside its scope, and BLS says so plainly in its own footnote: estimates do not include self-employed workers.
That exclusion matters more in this field than in most. Renting a chair or a booth makes a stylist self-employed for this purpose even though they work in someone else's salon every day, and it is a normal way to work rather than an edge case. So read every figure on this page as the pay of salon managers on a salon's payroll, and treat the trade as a whole as unmeasured by it.
How does salon manager pay compare with other beauty careers?
Salon manager pay ranks 2 of the 6 roles this site covers, at $48,590. The roles paying more at the median are makeup artists.
Median pay for all six rows is BLS national figures from the same May 2025 release, so they are comparable with each other.
| Role | Median | Top 10% | On payrolls |
|---|---|---|---|
| makeup artist | $97,150 | $167,470 | 2,340 |
| salon manager (this page) | $48,590 | $75,330 | 114,110 |
| esthetician | $45,330 | $82,050 | 72,890 |
| barber | $38,210 | $76,460 | 15,000 |
| cosmetologist | $35,790 | $71,190 | 305,710 |
| nail technician | $35,760 | $50,140 | 152,770 |
Common questions about salon manager pay
Every figure in the answers below is from the May 2025 OEWS release for 39-1022, and describes salon managers on a payroll rather than the trade as a whole.
How much does a salon manager make an hour in 2026?
Which state pays salon managers the most in 2026?
Do these figures include self-employed salon managers?
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. National and state medians, percentiles and employment for 39-1022.
- OEWS questions and answers. Survey scope, the exclusion of self-employed workers, and how annual figures are derived from hourly ones.