Rent, Payroll, and a Peel You Shouldn't Do
You have an offer to work at a busy med-spa. The owner proposes: '$900 a month rent, but for the first 90 days we'll run you on payroll at $18/hour plus 15% commission, then you flip to rent.' The spa sets your prices and hours, supplies the product line, requires weekly staff meetings, and books all your clients through the front desk. In week one the medical director asks you to perform a 'medium-depth TCA peel' on a client and to sign a paper listing you as an independent contractor. A client also wants to buy a $150 gift certificate as a birthday gift and asks whether it expires.
1. Analyze the proposed arrangement. What questions and concerns does the first 90 days raise?
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On those facts, the first 90 days look a lot like employment, not rent:
- The spa sets your prices and your hours.
- The spa supplies the product line and requires attendance at staff meetings.
- The spa controls your bookings and client flow through its front desk.
- You are paid hourly plus commission on the spa's payroll.
Control over schedule, pricing, and how the work is done is the core of the employee test; you generally cannot be directed like an employee and taxed as a contractor. The 'flip to rent' is a genuine transition - the terms change and the paperwork must change with it.
Before signing: get the arrangement in writing, speak with a CPA and ideally a lawyer who knows your state's rules, and ask who owns the client records and client relationships you build during the payroll period. Misclassification exposure is not just taxes: it touches workers' comp, unemployment, and who carries liability when something goes wrong.
2. The medical director asks you to perform a medium-depth TCA peel. What do you do, and why?
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Decline. A medium-depth TCA peel is a medical-depth procedure; estheticians are licensed for superficial work, and the depth of the peel - not the name on the bottle - defines scope of practice. 'The medical director asked me to' is not a defense; your license is the one at risk, and signing an independent-contractor form while doing directed medical work makes the exposure worse, not better.
Do this: say no in writing, ask who is licensed and insured to perform that specific peel, and refer the client to that provider. Verify the delegation and supervision rules with your state board before you ever assist. Then request the spa's written protocols and confirm your own professional liability coverage - a workplace willing to hand you a medical peel casually will also be casual about who absorbs the blame.
3. How do you answer the gift certificate question, and what should the spa's terms actually say?
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Answer with what you can verify, and put the terms in writing.
- Expiration: federal consumer rules generally bar gift certificates sold to consumers from expiring in less than five years from sale (or from last load, for reloadable cards), with limited exceptions such as promotional giveaways, and state law can add requirements. So 'expires in 90 days' is usually not enforceable as a forfeiture. Verify current federal and North Carolina rules before printing anything.
- Disclosure at the point of sale: expiration, whether it is redeemable for services or products, whether it is transferable, and what happens to any remaining balance.
- Process it through the spa's system, record the sale, and understand how it is taxed and tracked. Cash off the books is a bookkeeping and trust problem, not a shortcut.
- 'Non-refundable' is a term you may state clearly; it is not a license to refuse to provide the service or to hide terms. Consumer-protection exposure comes from surprises, not from clear conditions.
A good rule: if the client would be surprised later, disclose it now, in writing.