Established salons are struggling with rising costs, 15-euro barber shops and those who bungle haircuts

Whole generations used to immortalize themselves in various family books with the dream of becoming a hairdresser, but today the industry lacks young talent.

“The number of apprentices has practically halved in the past ten years, and has fallen by 30 percent since 2015,” calculates Wolfgang Eder, head of the hairdressers’ guild. Not just because young people prefer to pursue other career paths. “The training companies are dying out for us,” says Eder. Cost pressure is increasing, larger salons are shedding jobs, an above-average number of new companies in the industry (more than 30 percent) are one-person companies – and these train almost no apprentices. The result: “Today, hairdressing is a shortage profession.”

Black cut

At least officially – the shadow economy, on the other hand, seems to be booming like never before. “In our industry, about every fifth euro is generated illegally. That is 200 percent more than in the construction sector and twice as much as in accommodation and gastronomy,” he refers to figures from Statistics Austria. What particularly annoys him are the many cheap barber shops that advertise cutthroat prices of 15 euros per haircut. Pleasing for the customer, less so for the social system, Eder thinks. “You can’t work at such prices if you register your employees properly.” But that’s exactly what wouldn’t happen in many companies. A side note: in 2021, the number of marginally employed women in the industry was eleven percent and that of men 24 percent.

If the guild master has his way, there should be many more controls for social fraud in the industry – “that would at least have a deterrent effect for a while”. Eder is also of the opinion that all those who receive money from the AMS should not have any additional earning opportunities. “Currently, it is common practice that many people earn a small extra income from the black market because it doesn’t pay to take on a full-time job if you lose various social benefits, such as housing assistance, in return.”

According to information from the federal guild, 8.8 percent of the employees available in the hairdressing trade are currently registered as unemployed – despite the shortage of skilled workers.

Even after the 9.95 percent increase as of April 1, 2023, the collective agreement salary for hairdressers is at the lower end of the income scale. The industry currently has around 9,000 hairdressing salons with a total of 20,000 employees.

A side note: Due to the micro-entrepreneur regulation, no sales tax has to be paid up to a turnover limit of 35,000 euros. Eder speaks of a “two-class society” in which salons that hire employees are disadvantaged. According to his estimate, 60 percent of the companies are already below this sales limit. He calls for a reduction in VAT from 20 to 10 percent to relieve the burden on companies.