July 2007 -- As a member of any profession, it’s natural to be curious about the compensation and benefits others receive who perform similar duties. Tennis teachers are no exception. In fact, over the years we’ve had divisions and individual members ask us to do surveys to inquire specifically about the income and benefits of fellow USPTA Professionals. Likewise, organizations of owners and managers, and even industry partners who employ tennis professionals, have asked us to participate in similar surveys. In all these cases, unless questions related to salaries are removed, USPTA has declined to conduct or ask you to participate in these surveys for some very good reasons.
We know that our own members are only interested in salary and benefit information about their peers because it may be helpful to have a “ballpark” figure with which to negotiate a new contract or to assess whether you are being paid a fair wage for your services. However, in the case of owners, managers, and some industry groups that might sell statistical data, the collection of salary or compensation information is a very bad idea. The following will explain why.
Your USPTA Board of Directors firmly believes that salary surveys circulated by outside organizations representing employers create blatantly anticompetitive conditions and are illegal. Surveys that ask you to provide specific income and benefit information cannot possibly benefit you when it comes to negotiating your own compensation package because the data collected by these surveys averages numbers of lower-paid professionals with the income of people who may have worked for many years to attain a much higher salary or compensation package. Simply put, salary surveys give employers a guideline to work from that is definitely skewed in favor of paying teaching professionals less rather than more.
Recently, USPTA objected to a survey that included questions specifically seeking earnings data from tennis-teaching professionals. When the groups asked us to help them disseminate the survey, we explained that we could not, based on their inclusion of the questions about teaching pro earnings.
After consulting with our legal counsel, we explained that the compensation questions were against the law, and that similar surveys have been successfully challenged over the years. We also explained that any salary information that was to be shared with owners and managers – employers of our very own members – would be harmful to teaching professionals.
Aside from the illegality of earnings surveys, it’s also important to understand that compensation in one area of the country may vary drastically from another. In fact, salaries and other benefits may vary widely from one area of a state to another, depending on the number of resorts, the climate and the consumer base in those areas.
Of course, while we object to a blanket national earning survey for teaching professionals, we also understand that employers – many of whom are also USPTA members – really do need to assess tennis-teaching compensation in their own metropolitan areas. It’s always been our recommendation that employers will get a far more accurate picture of tennis-teacher compensation packages for their areas if they make a few phone calls to clubs in the same neighborhood and ask what they pay their teaching professionals. This information will be much more usable and will not be negatively or positively skewed by national data from vastly different areas.
I hope I’ve adequately explained USPTA’s stance on what can be a very controversial issue. Now you know the facts surrounding USPTA’s objection to compensation surveys and we hope that you’ll carefully consider your participation in any such surveys that are sent to you by groups other than USPTA. It’s our way of protecting the livelihood of our membership and backing industry projects that are mutually beneficial to everyone.
