Paying a yoga instructor if no one shows to class?
I own a small gym and group fitness studio that has recently opened. I have two yoga instructors who get paid per student for their classes. They are not gym employees but independent contractors. If no one shows up to a class should they expect to be paid? I want to be fair but I do not want to take a loss on the classes. I want them to have incentive to bring students in, but so far all the students have been gym members. They also get free gym membership as instructors. One instructor has told me that she gets $10 for a class where no one shows at another studio, but that is an established studio that does classes only, where as we have only had three classes so far. The first one, no one came, the second we had two students and the third we had one. Our class max is five, due to the small space.
Our instructors are paid hourly, and we do compensate them for the few-and-far-between classes when no one shows. However, we do set up our classes so students sign up for the whole month, and each class has a class minimum in order to run (typically a minimum of 6 to make sure we cover costs). We also allow for drop ins to class as space allows, but always aim to meet our minimum with rostered students.
That way, it doesn’t happen very often that we have a class where no one shows.