Are you paying your instructors?

[ps1]

Are your instructors/assistant instructors paid employees.

For my purposes "paid" indicates they receive a wage...not barter for services.

Also, I'm only speaking about those whom you allow to run a class without you present. If little johnny helps run students through warm-ups or kata or techniques while you help someone else on the floor...that's not an instructor for my purposes. I'm talking about that person that comes in and teaches entire classes on their own.

Many schools have the habit of not paying instructors. In my opinion, this practice is just wrong and illegal. Here are my thoughts:

1. Instructors do not get to decide what hours they will come and what they will not. This makes them an employee. They have a set schedule they must adhere to.

2. The law states, "Under the FLSA, the pay you receive must be in the form of cash or something that can be readily converted into cash or other legal forms of compensation, such as food and lodging. Your employer cannot, for example, pay you with a coupon or token that can be spent only at a store run by the employer. Employee discounts granted by employers do not count toward the minimum wage requirement."

So bartering for free training doesn't fit this mold. My instructors can't take their training to the grocery store and buy a loaf of bread with it.

3. It's the right thing to do. People who help you make money should get paid for their time. Free services should be a benefit or perk, not a form of payment.

Here are some websites to help you decide:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/11/irs-tax-barter-exchange-income-personal-finance-wood.html

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter2-3.html

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html

What are your thoughts?

Edited September 16, 2014 by ps1

[sensei8]

Nice topic, thank you for starting it!! I voted: Yes!

INTERNSHIP!! Any internship may or may not be paid, and for the most, they're temporary. This is the loophole that many MA instructors have seem to have grasped quite well. Past, present, and future!!

Instructors pay their "internships" by exchanging services, aka, lessons for classes they attend as a student of the CI. No employment is ever guaranteed to an "internship", unlike a trainee would be. Attaching the label of "internship" upon said instructors, is that loophole that's legal. For the most, these type of "internships" within a MA school would be a work experience internship because they're doing everything that the CI does whenever they open their own school, if they choose to.

No instructor should EVER be held to a servitude of any capacity to any CI!! It's a voluntary relationship between both and all parties. A CI can try to dictate times that an instructor MUST be at the school, but that's not possible because of outside responsibilities, like school and other employment obligations.

Remember the word: servitude!! It goes a long way, and NO CI owns anybody in and out of the school. No matter what label capacity is affixed upon said individual.

Funny, how many of us have taught as "part of upper Kyu and lower Dan requirements for testing cycle requirements" for absolutely free. Again, the loophole is internship, and while it seems wrong and illegal, it's not challenged in any courts that I've ever read about! I taught for "free" under the supervision of Soke and Dai-Soke for many years, but never gave it much thought for one reason or another.

To assist is not the same as teaching. To teach is to impart information, and to assist, is to help said information of the teacher to be understood. The assistant is under the CI, and in that, the CI dictates what their assistants are to help with and how.

My instructors are paid, AND they're my students as well!! I've NO internships of any shape, way, and/or form because I want to keep the ratio of instructors to students low; too many chiefs and no Indians, so to speak. For me, I just don't need nor do I desire, a lot of instructors. BB's, yes, I've my share of BB's, but not all BB's can teach/assist, and they never should!!

My JBB's aren't instructors, they assist from time to time, but not as often as one might think because parents dictate the comings and goings of any and all JBB's under my authority as the CI. However, that's limited because I'm not the parent or guardian, I'm just the CI, and nothing more!!

[ps1]

Thanks, Sensei 8. As I qualified my poll by saying paid in money, the answer you're giving is "No, your instructors/assistant instructors, are not paid employees."

I'll update the question to be more clear.

[Wastelander]

My Sensei pays the other instructors at the dojo for their teaching time. That said, he can't afford to pay a lot because the dojo doesn't make a huge income. We do it because we love it, though, so nobody has been offended, as far as I know. My pay was equal to my dues, so I just opted to barter for classes instead of cashing a check and then writing a check. If I had taught more classes, or taken fewer, then the equation would have been different, but I like the balance I have. I do still get paid in cash for any private lessons I teach, though, since those are extra.

[wayneshin]

I agree totally with the OP. I pay all my Instructors. To do anything else would be to take advantage of them. The only circumstance where it is OK to do any differently is in a school that is set up as a non profit enterprise. Then I guess all Instructors are volunteers.

[Nidan Melbourne]

At my dojo my sensei pays 2 instructors; 1 who teaches on Fridays and 1 who teaches when he can.

I teach on Saturdays but I annoyingly don't get paid. Although he did pay me for one saturday because i ran the class as the lead instructor.

Although currently I am in negotiations with him in relation to getting paid for every saturday i do

[Lupin1]

I agree totally with the OP. I pay all my Instructors. To do anything else would be to take advantage of them. The only circumstance where it is OK to do any differently is in a school that is set up as a non profit enterprise. Then I guess all Instructors are volunteers.

That's how it is at my school. The kids pay $1 a class just to help buy and maintain our (sparse) equipment. For adults it's free, so the vast majority of the adults come in early and volunteer with the kids' classes to help out and give back to the club.

[Nidan Melbourne]

I agree totally with the OP. I pay all my Instructors. To do anything else would be to take advantage of them. The only circumstance where it is OK to do any differently is in a school that is set up as a non profit enterprise. Then I guess all Instructors are volunteers.

That's how it is at my school. The kids pay $1 a class just to help buy and maintain our (sparse) equipment. For adults it's free, so the vast majority of the adults come in early and volunteer with the kids' classes to help out and give back to the club.

why don't the adults chip in?

[sensei8]

Thanks, Sensei 8. As I qualified my poll by saying paid in money, the answer you're giving is "No, your instructors/assistant instructors, are not paid employees."

I'll update the question to be more clear.

My instructors are paid, AND they're my students as well!! I've NO internships of any shape, way, and/or form because I want to keep the ratio of instructors to students low; too many chiefs and no Indians, so to speak. For me, I just don't need nor do I desire, a lot of instructors. BB's, yes, I've my share of BB's, but not all BB's can teach/assist, and they never should!!

I did say, all of my instructors ARE PAID, and they're paid with a payroll check, like any other employee would be. I pay them to teach, and they pay me to teach them; after all, they're also my students. And I don't swap or barter because I just don't; either is a separate thing on separate ledgers.

Yes, I don't pay my assistants, and that's because...

To assist is not the same as teaching. To teach is to impart information, and to assist, is to help said information of the teacher to be understood. The assistant is under the CI, and in that, the CI dictates what their assistants are to help with and how.

...because they're not TEACHING!! They're assisting, mainly me, after all, I'm the CI, or their assisting one of my instructors. I'm on the floor 90% of the time, unless I'm at the Hombu!!

[sensei8]

An after thought...

Just how many instructors are going to report their CI and/or the school to their states labor board? I don't think many, and actually, I don't think any will at all. Why? I believe that their needs and their wants to remain as a student of that CI will not allow that to happen.

I believe that they should report them to their states labor board because what's against the law is exactly that...it's against the law and needs to be addressed in the courts.

Imagine what the landscape of how a school selects its instructors will look like should instructors bring suits to their CI/School...I can imagine it would look very different.