What do you really earn an hour?
Your lesson rate is not your pay. Count every hour you work, take out what the studio costs to run and the tax, and see what you actually earn for each hour. It takes about three minutes.
Your teaching
Think of a normal week in term. Not your busiest, not your quietest.
The work that happens between lessons
You aren't paid for these hours directly, but they are still work. Rough numbers are fine.
What the studio costs to run
Monthly amounts. If you teach from home, put in the share of rent, power and internet that belongs to the studio. Skip anything that doesn't apply.
Tax
Use the share of your studio profit that goes in tax overall, not your top bracket. Your last tax return or your accountant will know. If you're not sure, a rough guess is fine: you can come back and change it.
Official tax rates
These list the brackets. Because only the income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate, your overall rate will be lower than your top bracket.
–
–
- Set fees that pay you for all your work, not just the lessons
- A studio policy and billing system that stop the money leaking
- Get hours of admin back every week
How we worked it out
Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to TopMusic unless you ask us to email you, and then only your name, email and the hourly rate you got. Minimum wages are the adult hourly rates in force in September 2026: Australia's national minimum wage from 1 July 2026, New Zealand's adult minimum wage and Canada's federal minimum wage from 1 April 2026, the UK's National Living Wage from April 2026 and the US federal minimum wage. An employee on these rates also gets paid holidays and sick leave, and in Australia super on top, so the real gap is bigger than it looks.