Key Findings from the IHRSA 2017 Health Club Employee Compensation & Benefits Report

“Payroll is one of the largest expenses among health clubs, as hiring and investing in staff plays a critical role in serving and retaining members."

  • March 21, 2017

Two-thirds of North American health clubs offer employees a retirement plan, according to the IHRSA 2017 Health Club Employee Compensation & Benefits Report, which details compensation data for nearly 60 job titles. The report, released Tuesday, provides salary and compensation results based on data from more than 200 North American facilities.

“Payroll is one of the largest expenses among health clubs, as hiring and investing in staff plays a critical role in serving and retaining members,” said Jay Ablondi, IHRSA’s executive vice president of global products. “IHRSA has regularly conducted employee compensation research for more than 15 years to help club operators analyze and gauge their compensation practices against other club businesses.”

The new report provides compensation data such as base salary and total compensation for club and executive-level staff as well as hourly pay and commissions data for club-level employees. Data on medical insurance, retirement plans, leave days, and other benefits are also analyzed in the report.

Some additional key findings include:

  • Clubs reported an average health insurance premium increase of 8.9% from 2015-2016
  • 66% of clubs offer a retirement plan
  • 62% of clubs match employee contributions to retirement plans
  • Clubs provide an average of 8 paid leave days to salaried employees with less than one year on the job

“New to this year’s report is an infographic snapshot of benefits practices as well as graphics summarizing compensation data for the most commonly requested job titles,” said Melissa Rodriguez, IHRSA Senior Research Manager.

“Along with the in-depth report data across various levels of the organization, club operators can refer to these snapshots for a quick overview of pay for CEO, general manager, personal trainer, and group exercise instructor job titles.”

The report also provides a brief macroeconomic outlook on compensation and unemployment. According to a separate nationwide WorldatWork Salary Budget Survey, companies offered salary increases of roughly 3% to employees in 2016. In 2017, firms are projecting similar salary budget increases of 3%.

Learn more about the IHRSA 2017 Health Club Employee Compensation & Benefits Report.