Hair or Beauty Salon Manager
Manages the day-to-day operations of a hair or beauty salon in Australia, overseeing staff performance, client services, and business administration. Responsibilities include scheduling appointments, managing budgets, ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations, and maintaining customer satisfaction and retention.
What this job is
Manages the day-to-day operations of a hair or beauty salon in Australia, overseeing staff performance, client services, and business administration. Responsibilities include scheduling appointments, managing budgets, ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations, and maintaining customer satisfaction and retention. The role bridges hands-on salon work with business management, often requiring current industry knowledge and customer-facing skills.
Are employers advertising this role?
Rising, up 36.0% over 5 years
Counted across a group of similar roles. These are three-month rolling averages of online job advertisements, not filled positions.
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Internet Vacancy Index.
Day-to-day
Roster staff members across opening hours, accounting for skill levels, client preferences, and leave arrangements. Monitor and manage salon hygiene protocols, including sterilisation of tools and equipment in accordance with Australian health department guidelines. Train and mentor junior stylists, beauticians, and support staff on salon procedures, product knowledge, and customer service standards. Reconcile daily takings, process payments, and manage petty cash and salon accounts. Manage inventory of hair products, beauty supplies, and consumables, including ordering from suppliers and tracking stock levels. Conduct performance reviews with staff and address performance issues or customer complaints. Develop and implement salon pricing strategies, promotional campaigns, and loyalty programmes to attract and retain clients. Maintain compliance with Australian Consumer Law regarding product claims, pricing transparency, and refund policies.
Who does this now
About 5,000 people worked in this occupation across Australia at the 2021 Census.
What this role asks for
Diploma, advanced diploma or associate degree (ABS skill level 2)
Registration or licensing may be required.
Can employers fill these jobs
Employers hiring for this occupation were generally able to find suitable applicants in 2025. This measures how hard employers found it to fill jobs. It is not a count of jobs, and it does not say whether the occupation is growing.
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Jobs and Skills Australia defines an occupation-ready qualification as:
Completing this qualification will provide the skills and knowledge to undertake this occupation. Further training and experience may be required to meet specific industry requirements including licensing and registration.
Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Requirements
The standard entry pathway requires a diploma, advanced diploma or associate degree (ABS skill level 2). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.
The honest hard part
Your salary ceiling is real. You're managing staff drama, difficult customers, and tight margins every single day. The pay doesn't match the stress load, especially when a stylist calls in sick and you're doing hair at the chair while handling complaints and payroll.
Where the jobs are
Regional towns have salons but fewer management positions available. The practical reality is that bigger cities mean more salons, more competition for staff, and more career progression options.
Pay
Published for ANZSCO unit group 1421, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.
This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.
Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
Skills
- Appointment Schedulingcore
- Award Interpretationcore
- Complaint Handlingcore
- Conflict Resolutioncore
- Customer Needs Assessmentcore
- Inventory Trackingcore
- Invoicing and Accounts Receivablecore
- Onboarding New Clientscore
- Rostering and Scheduling Supportcore
- Team Collaborationcore
- Time Management and Prioritisationcore
- Upselling and Cross-Sellingcore
- Verbal Communicationcore
- Adhere to organisational guidelines
- Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracy
- Digital Literacy
- Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
- Feedback Collection and Actioning
- Goal Setting and Planning
- Leave Management
- Payroll Processing
- Process Improvement Identification
- Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
- Stock Counting and Stocktake
Which of these do you have?
Tick the ones you haveCommon questions
Sources
- ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
- ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
- ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.
Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.
What Hair or Beauty Salon Manager workers move into, from ten years of tax records.
Last updated: 30 October 2026
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