Nail salons across the UK are raising their prices today in a huge collaboration across the industry.
Monday has been dubbed National Nail Tech Price Increase Day by the organisers – but why are they doing it, how much are prices going up by and does it affect all salons?
Here’s what you need to know.
Why are prices going up?
It’s to get a “fair wage” for nail technicians and a move towards helping industry businesses become “sustainable”, according to organisers the Nail Tech Org (NTO).
The NTO, which describes itself as a “safe online community” for nail technicians, warned its member make on average just under £7 per hour – below the minimum living wage of £11.44.
The NTO’s founder Amy Guy said she came up with the idea for the day after conducting surveys of its members on their income and profits.
She told Sky News: “We want to create a shift so the industry becomes sustainable so we can keep working for years to come.
“The job of a nail tech isn’t easy, costs are rising all around us, the costs of products and tools are also rising along with utility, rent and those things.
“It’s so important that as business owners we’re aware of our costs. The biggest problem in the nail tech industry for a long time has been pricing, but a lot of prices aren’t realistic for business owners.
“I don’t think people would be happy getting their nails done, knowing the technician wasn’t making minimum wage.”
How much are prices increasing?
Each business taking part in the price hike is different, according to the NTO, as it depends on their individual business costs.
The NTO offered what it describes as a “free masterclass” online for nail technicians, allowing them to calculate their own business costs and ultimately create a new “pricing structure that supports us now and in the future”.
As an example, The Beauty Bar in Birmingham announced a price increase of £2-3 per service.
Its owner Lauren Pritchard told Sky News it was because the cost of opening her salon on a day-to-day basis has doubled in the last four years due to increased energy and product costs.
Ms Guy said the price increases would be “completely different from one nail technician to the other”.
She told Sky News: “If you do see nail tech increasing their prices, that could be by any amount, and that’s simply because they have now decided to calculate what their business costs are and correctly price their services.”
Asked about reports suggesting some technicians could increase certain services by as much as 50%, she admitted it would be a significant increase, but put it down to nail technicians joining the industry and charging too low a price for luxury services to compete with established competitors.
How many businesses are raising their prices?
Ms Guy told Sky News “thousands” of nail technicians were putting their prices up on Monday, though didn’t specify exactly how many.
On its website, the NTO said not all nail technicians would need to increase their prices and taking part in the campaign was not mandatory.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Is this price fixing?
Price fixing is an act prohibited by law and involves businesses working together rather than competing.
According to the government, you are breaking the law if you agree with one or more other businesses to:
• Charge the same prices to your customers
• Offer discounts or increase your prices at the same time
Ms Guy has dismissed suggestions raised on social media that the NTO’s campaign amounts to price fixing.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“There’s no set price that everybody will be amending their prices to,” she told BBC 5 Live.
She said it was more of an “education piece” around what your current business costs are, adding “everybody’s will be different” depending on factors such as whether they work from home or at a salon or if they are mobile.
Ms Guy said: “It’s just more… an educational piece of what are your business costs, please check them, please calculate them and then make sure that your prices are at least more than minimum wage, because that’s important.”
