You know your instructors deserve to be paid well. You also know your margins can't absorb whatever number pops up first on a salary comparison site.
The tricky part isn't figuring out what BJJ instructors make. It's structuring compensation, so you keep great people teaching your classes without putting your gym underwater.
Most "BJJ instructor pay" content is written for instructors researching their earning potential.
This isn't that article. This is for you—the person writing the checks, building the schedule, and trying to figure out how to pay fairly while keeping the lights on.
Think of it as your compensation playbook.
Market rates you can benchmark against right now, five pay models with honest pros and cons, the employee vs contractor decision that could save (or cost) you thousands, and a pay ladder you can actually implement as your academy grows.
Let's get into it.
BJJ Instructor Pay: What the Market Actually Looks Like
Before you set a single rate, you need to understand the market.
These ranges come from gym owner communities, job boards, and real compensation data from academies across the country.
Per-class and hourly rates by experience level
A few things to keep in mind here. These ranges are wide on purpose. A purple belt assistant running warm-ups and helping with drilling in a small town isn't the same as a purple belt teaching a full fundamentals class in Miami.
The per-class rate is the more common model in BJJ. Most instructors aren't clocking in and out—they're teaching a class, and that's what you're paying for.
How geography shifts the numbers
Where your gym sits changes everything.
A black belt teaching three evening classes a week at $50/class in a suburb brings home $600/month from your gym.
That same instructor in Manhattan might expect $75–$100 per class for the same work. Cost of living drives it—and your membership pricing should reflect the same market.
Full-time salary ranges
For instructors teaching 15+ classes per week and handling additional responsibilities like curriculum planning, private lessons, and student assessments:
- Smaller academy (under 150 members): $30,000–$50,000/year
- Urban academy (150–250 members): $50,000–$70,000/year
- Head instructor / program director: $50,000–$80,000/year
BJJ instructor pay at the salary level can look deceptively high on comparison sites.
Glassdoor sometimes reports averages above $70,000 for martial arts instructors. That number skews high because it overrepresents structured employment at large franchises with benefits packages.
The practical range for independent BJJ academies—where most bjj instructor salary figures actually land—is closer to $35,000–$65,000.
If you're trying to figure out whether your gym can afford a full-time instructor, the answer depends on where you are in your gym owner income journey.
Five Compensation Models (And When Each One Makes Sense)
There's no single "right" way to pay instructors. The best model depends on your gym's size, revenue stage, and how many classes that instructor teaches.
Here's what each one looks like from your P&L.
Hourly / per-class pay
How it works: You pay a flat rate per class taught. The instructor shows up, teaches, goes home. No class, no pay.
What's good about it:
- Simple to budget—you know exactly what each class costs
- Flexible for both sides
- Easy to adjust as you add or remove classes
- Low commitment if an instructor doesn't work out
What's not great:
- Zero retention incentive—they can leave anytime
- Doesn't reward instructors who build your program
- Can feel transactional to experienced instructors
Best for: Part-time instructors, assistants, new instructor relationships where you're still figuring out fit.
Flat salary
How it works: Fixed monthly or annual pay regardless of class count (within reason). Usually includes non-teaching duties like curriculum planning, student assessments, and social media.
What's good about it:
- Predictable cost for you, stable income for them
- Builds loyalty and long-term commitment
- Covers non-teaching work that makes your gym better
- Easier to budget month to month
What's not great:
- Higher fixed cost even in slow months
- Can breed complacency without performance incentives
- Harder to adjust if revenue dips
Best for: Full-time instructors teaching 15+ classes per week with additional responsibilities. Usually your head instructor or program director.
Revenue share
How it works: Instructor earns a percentage of the gym's revenue—sometimes total revenue, sometimes just from the classes or programs they run.
What's good about it:
- Aligns incentives perfectly—they grow, you grow
- Motivates instructors to bring in and retain students
- Grows with the gym—when you earn more, they earn more
What's not great:
- Requires transparent financials (are you ready for that?)
- Complex to track, especially with multiple instructors
- Income swings can frustrate instructors during slow months
- Can create tension if they feel they're driving growth but not seeing it
Best for: Head instructors you're grooming as partners, or profit-sharing arrangements with long-term team members. Requires serious trust on both sides.
Per-student model
How it works: Instructor earns a fixed amount per student who attends their class—usually $3–$7 per student per class.
What's good about it:
- Directly rewards popular, high-quality instruction
- Motivates instructors to build class attendance
- Easy for instructors to understand and calculate
What's not great:
- Can create unfair dynamics between time slots (6 AM vs 7 PM)
- New instructors get penalized while building a following
- Doesn't reward non-teaching contributions
Best for: Tying pay directly to impact. Works well as a bonus component on top of a base rate.
Hybrid models
Most gyms with more than two or three instructors end up at some version of this. A hybrid combines a stable base with performance incentives that keep instructors invested in your gym's success.
Example 1: Base + attendance bonus
$35/class base + $3/student over 15 students. If a brown belt instructor averages 20 students per class across three weekly classes, that's $35 + $15 = $50/class, or $600/month.
Example 2: Salary + retention bonus
$3,500/month salary + $500 quarterly bonus if student retention stays above 85%. Annual compensation: $44,000.
Example 3: Base + revenue share + private lessons
$3,000/month base + 5% of monthly membership revenue + 70% of private lesson fees. At 200 members paying $135/month average, that's $3,000 + $1,350 + private lesson income.
Hybrid models are more complex to administer.
You're tracking attendance, calculating bonuses, and managing multiple pay components. That's where gym management software that tracks attendance and class data in one place stops being optional—you need it, or you're doing the math by hand every month.
Employee vs Independent Contractor: The Classification Decision That Can Cost You Thousands
This is the section most gym owners skip. Don't.
How you classify your instructors—W-2 employee or 1099 independent contractor—isn't a preference. It's a legal determination. Get it wrong and you're looking at back taxes, penalties, and potential lawsuits.
The IRS three-factor test
The IRS looks at three categories to determine worker classification:
1. Behavioral control: Do you control how and when the work gets done?
- If you set the class schedule, dictate the curriculum, and require instructors to follow your teaching methods—that points toward employee.
- If the instructor teaches their own curriculum, on their own schedule, with their own methods—that points toward contractor.
2. Financial arrangement: How is the instructor paid?
- Regular wages, expense reimbursement, and benefits = employee indicators.
- Flat fee per class with no benefits, instructor provides own equipment = contractor indicators.
3. Relationship type: What's the nature of the arrangement?
- Ongoing relationship, written contract, key role in the business = employee indicators.
- Project-based, instructor works for multiple gyms, no exclusivity = contractor indicators.
Here's the reality for most BJJ academies. If an instructor teaches regular weekly classes at your gym, follows your schedule, and uses your facility—the IRS is likely to classify them as an employee. Not a contractor.
California's ABC test and why it matters everywhere
If you're in California, you're dealing with the ABC test under AB-5.
It's stricter than the IRS test and presumes everyone is an employee unless you can prove all three conditions:
- A: The worker is free from your control and direction
- B: The worker performs work outside the usual course of your business
- C: The worker has an independently established trade or business
Prong B is nearly impossible for a BJJ instructor at a BJJ academy. Teaching BJJ is literally the core of your business.
Even if you're not in California, more states are adopting similar tests. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois have strict classification rules. The trend is moving toward employee classification.
What misclassification actually costs
This isn't a slap on the wrist. If the IRS determines you've misclassified employees as contractors:
- Back employment taxes for every misclassified worker
- Penalties of 1.5% of wages plus 20% of the employee's share of FICA (for unintentional misclassification—willful violations are far steeper)
- Interest on unpaid taxes dating back to the misclassification
- Overtime liability if they worked over 40 hours
- State-level penalties on top of federal
In some cases, the IRS can effectively double your original tax liability.
For a gym paying an instructor $40,000/year as a 1099 contractor, a reclassification could mean $10,000–$15,000 in back taxes, penalties, and interest—per year of misclassification.
The real cost difference: employee vs contractor
Here's the math most owners want to see:
Making an instructor a W-2 employee costs roughly 10–12% more than a 1099 contractor arrangement. For an instructor earning $4,000/month:
- FICA—Social Security and Medicare (employer share): 7.65% = $306/month
- FUTA (federal unemployment tax): 0.6% on the first $7,000 of wages = ~$42/year
- State unemployment: Varies, typically 1–3% = $40–$120/month
- Workers' comp: Varies by state, typically $30–$80/month
Total additional cost: $400–$530/month, or roughly $5,000–$6,400/year.
That's real money. But frame it as insurance—you're paying $5,000–$6,400/year to avoid a penalty that could be three times that. The math works.
Building a Pay Ladder for a Multi-Instructor Academy
As your academy grows, you need a clear BJJ instructor compensation structure—not just for budgeting, but so instructors can see a path forward.
Good instructors know when they're in a dead end. Make sure yours can see what comes next.
If you need a refresher on how BJJ belt ranks break down, that context helps when setting tier expectations with your team.
Tier 1: Assistant instructors (blue/purple belt)
Typical compensation: $15–$25/class or free membership + $200–$400/month stipend
At this level, most assistants are students who want more mat time and teaching experience. They're running warm-ups, helping with drilling, and demonstrating techniques under a higher belt's supervision.
Let's be honest about the "free mat time" arrangement. It's common. It works for a while. But relying on unpaid labor creates problems:
- Assistants burn out or feel taken advantage of
- You can't hold them to standards if they're not being compensated
- They'll leave when a paid opportunity comes along
- It sets a bad precedent for your gym culture
The move is to start with a modest stipend plus free membership, then increase as they take on more responsibility. Even $200/month signals that you value their contribution.
Tier 2: Class instructors (brown belt / new black belt)
Typical compensation: $30–$50/class or $25–$40/hr part-time
This is where things get real. A Tier 2 instructor runs classes independently. They're teaching fundamentals, managing the room, and representing your academy's quality.
At this stage, you need:
- Written agreements. Not a 50-page contract—a simple one-pager covering pay rate, schedule expectations, cancellation policy, and non-compete terms.
- Reliable, consistent pay. Nothing kills an instructor relationship faster than late or inconsistent payments. Set up biweekly or monthly pay on a fixed schedule and stick to it.
- Clear expectations. What are they responsible for beyond teaching? Cleaning? Social media? Locking up?
Tier 3: Lead instructors (experienced black belt)
Typical compensation: $45–$75/class or $40,000–$60,000/year salary
Your Tier 3 instructors are the ones your students come to see. They're experienced, reliable, and a major factor in member retention. Losing one of these can cost you students.
At this level, compensation should include performance incentives tied to what matters:
- Student retention bonuses. If their classes maintain 85%+ retention over a quarter, add a $500 bonus.
- Enrollment bonuses. $25–$50 for each new student who stays past 90 days in their program.
- Private lesson access. More on this below.
Tier 4: Head instructor/program director
Typical compensation: $60–$100+/class or $50,000–$80,000/year salary with hybrid compensation
Your head instructor is your second-in-command. They shape curriculum, mentor other instructors, handle student assessments, and often represent the academy publicly.
Hybrid compensation works best here. A base salary for stability, plus performance incentives that tie their success to the gym's success. Something like:
$4,000/month base + 3–5% of membership revenue + 70% of private lesson fees + annual performance review with raise potential.
This is also where you should be thinking about long-term retention tools—equity shares, profit-sharing, or partnership paths.
The cost of replacing a head instructor isn't just financial. It's the students who then leave, too.
When you're managing multiple instructor tiers with different pay structures, tracking everything in spreadsheets gets messy fast. Gym management software like Gymdesk tracks attendance and class data in one place—so instead of piecing together who taught what from three different spreadsheets, you start the pay calculation with clean numbers.
How Much of Your Revenue Should Go to BJJ Instructor Pay
Here's the benchmark that keeps your gym healthy: 25–35% of monthly recurring revenue (MRR) on instructor compensation.
This range is based on gym owner financial data and aligns with general service industry payroll ratios.
Below 25% and you're likely underpaying—which means you're one good offer away from losing your best people. Above 38% and you're squeezing your other operating costs (rent, equipment, marketing) to the point where something breaks.
Payroll by gym stage
Your instructor payroll evolves as your gym grows. Here's what it typically looks like:
- Startup phase (80–120 members): You're teaching most classes yourself with one or two part-time assistants. Total instructor payroll: $1,000–$3,000/month.
- Growth phase (140–180 members): You've hired your first full-time instructor and have two or three part-timers. Total instructor payroll: $3,500–$6,500/month.
- Established phase (220–280+ members): Full instructor team with a head instructor, two or three lead instructors, and several part-time assistants. Total instructor payroll: $10,000–$15,000/month.
These numbers aren't precise targets—they're ranges you can gut-check against.
If you're at 150 members spending $8,000/month on instructors, something might be off. If you're at 250 members spending $4,000/month, you're probably burning out your team.
When to hire your first paid instructor
This is the math that matters: At an average membership price of $135/month, an instructor who costs $4,000/month costs about 30 memberships just to break even.
That sounds steep. But here's what you're buying with that $4,000:
- Your time back. If you're teaching 20 classes a week and an instructor takes eight of them, that's eight hours you can spend on growing your academy, marketing, or sleeping.
- Better retention. Fresh instruction from multiple perspectives keeps your program interesting. Members stay longer when the curriculum doesn't get stale.
- Capacity to grow. You can't add evening or weekend classes if you're already teaching everything.
The break-even point isn't the right lens.
The question is: What would you do with eight extra hours a week? If the answer is "add classes, follow up with leads, or plan curriculum"—that's the work that actually grows your gym—and your students get more out of it too.
If you want to see how instructor costs fit into the broader gym owner financial picture, we've broken that down separately.
Keeping Good Instructors: Compensation as a Retention Strategy
Paying a competitive rate is just the starting point. Keeping your best instructors requires more than a fair number on their check. It requires building an environment they don't want to leave.
Beyond the paycheck
When you ask instructors what matters most, money is rarely at the top. Here's what consistently ranks:
- Consistency of pay. Not the amount—the reliability. Getting paid on time, every time, without chasing it. This is the single fastest way to lose trust.
- Competitive base. They don't need to be the highest-paid instructor in town, but they need to feel respected.
- Private lesson access. The ability to earn additional income through privates at your facility.
- Schedule flexibility. Life happens. Instructors who feel trapped by rigid schedules look for exits.
- Career path. Where does this go? If the answer is "nowhere," they'll find somewhere it does.
- Health and wellness perks. Continuing education support, competition travel, seminar access—these matter to career martial artists.
Bonus structures that work
The right bonus structure reinforces the behaviors you want without accidentally rewarding the wrong things.
- Student retention bonus. $300–$500/quarter if the classes they teach maintain retention above a target. This rewards quality instruction, not just popularity.
- Enrollment bonus. $25–$50 per new student who stays beyond 90 days. This incentivizes welcoming environments and good first impressions without rewarding short-term signups.
- Attendance milestones. Annual bonus tied to total student attendance in their classes. Rewards consistent quality over time.
- Annual reviews with raises. Build in a formal review with a raise path. Even 3–5% annually signals long-term investment.
The private lesson question
Every gym handles this differently. Here are the three most common arrangements:
- Gym takes 20–30%, instructor keeps 70–80%. The gym provides the space, insurance, and student pipeline. This is the most common split.
- Flat facility fee. Instructor pays $10–$20 per lesson for using the space and keeps everything else. Simpler to administer.
- 100% to instructor. Some gym owners let instructors keep all private lesson income as a retention perk—especially when the base salary is modest.
There's no "right" answer, but be clear about it upfront. Ambiguity around private lessons creates resentment faster than almost anything else.
For more on how instructors can build other ways to earn beyond class pay, that's worth a read.
What happens when your head instructor leaves
It's worth thinking about this before it happens.
Your head instructor probably has personal relationships with 30–50% of your students. If they leave—especially to open their own academy—you could lose a significant chunk of membership revenue overnight.
A few things to have in place:
- Non-compete clauses. Enforceable in some states, not in others. Consult a local attorney. Even where they're weak legally, they set expectations.
- Succession planning. Always have a Tier 3 instructor developing toward Tier 4. If your head instructor is the only person who can run your academy, that's a single point of failure.
- Key-person risk mitigation. Build your brand around the academy, not around one instructor. Students should feel connected to the community and culture—not just one person.
- Retention through ownership. For truly irreplaceable head instructors, explore equity stakes, profit-sharing, or partnership paths. It's harder to leave something you own.
Your gym's culture is the ultimate retention tool—for members and instructors alike.
Payroll Management: Making It All Work
Setting compensation is a strategic decision. Managing payroll is the operational one. Both matter.
Setting up payroll the right way
If you're paying employees (W-2), you need the basics in place before the first paycheck:
- W-4 from each employee (federal tax withholding)
- I-9 for employment eligibility verification
- State-specific forms (varies by location)
- Biweekly or semi-monthly pay schedule (pick one, be consistent)
- Tax withholding setup (federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state/local)
- Workers' comp insurance (required in most states for employees)
For 1099 contractors (where legitimately classified), you need:
- W-9 from each contractor
- Written agreement covering pay rate, schedule, and expectations
- 1099-NEC filed by January 31 for anyone paid $600+ in the prior year
Tax compliance essentials
Mark these on your calendar:
- Quarterly payroll tax deposits (Form 941 for federal)
- Annual W-2 filing (to employees by January 31, to SSA by January 31)
- 1099-NEC filing (to contractors and IRS by January 31)
- State unemployment tax filings (quarterly in most states)
- Workers' comp audit (annual in most states)
Miss a quarterly filing, and penalties start at 5% of unpaid taxes—increasing by 5% per month up to 25%. Set calendar reminders or, better yet, let your payroll system handle it automatically.
Software options for gym payroll
Your approach to payroll software depends on how many instructors you're paying:
- One or two part-time instructors: A spreadsheet might work. Calculate per-class pay, track it monthly, write checks or Venmo (for contractors only). Simple but error-prone and time-consuming as you grow.
- 3–5 instructors (mixed models): Standalone payroll software like Gusto (starting ~$55/month + per-employee fees) or QuickBooks Payroll (starting ~$50/month + per-employee fees) handles tax calculations, filings, and direct deposit. Worth the cost to avoid compliance headaches.
- Multi-instructor academy with hybrid pay: This is where an integrated system pays for itself. When your payroll depends on attendance data—per-student bonuses, class counts, retention metrics—you need software that connects the dots.
Gymdesk ties attendance tracking and class scheduling together in one place.
Instead of pulling class rosters from one system, cross-referencing your schedule from another, and then building a spreadsheet to calculate hybrid pay—you start with one clean export. Class by class, instructor by instructor, student headcounts included.
The math is still yours to run, but you're not wasting Sunday night hunting down the inputs.
The Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line
Paying BJJ instructors isn't just a line item—it's one of the most important decisions you'll make as your academy grows.
Get it right, and you build a team that stays, teaches well, and helps your gym thrive. Get it wrong, and you're constantly recruiting, retraining, and losing students.
Here's what matters:
- Know your market. Per-class rates range from $15–$100+, depending on experience and geography. Benchmark against local academies, not salary websites.
- Pick the right structure for your stage. Per-class pay for part-timers. Salary for full-timers. Hybrid models for your best people. Match the model to your revenue reality.
- Get classification right. If your instructors teach regular classes on your schedule at your facility, they're probably employees. The 10–12% additional cost is insurance against penalties that could be three times that.
- Budget 25–35% of MRR for instructor pay. Below that, you're risking turnover—and your students lose good instructors. Above that, you're risking your margins.
- Retention is more than money. Consistent pay, career paths, private lesson access, and a strong gym culture keep instructors longer than an extra $5 per class.
If you're spending hours each month reconciling attendance data, cross-referencing class schedules, and tracking who taught what before you can even start calculating pay—Gymdesk brings the attendance and scheduling side into one place.
Try it free for 30 days and see how much time you get back on the front end of payroll.
