How Much Does Coaching Pay?

If you want to learn what life coach salary is like, we got you covered! If you’re training to become a professional life coach, in the back of your mind is the very practical question of “How much will I earn?” The first answer you’ll commonly hear is - “It depends.”  As true as that is, factoring in how much you actually work, average time spent with clients in and out of formal coaching sessions, amount of additional support provided, etc. – you’d like some hard numbers.

Assuming you’re a professional coach with the right training and experience (and not a ‘self-trained’ consultant who just hung up their shingle last week), what can you earn?  

Fortunately, those numbers are not so hard to come by. We contacted Noomi, the professional coach directory used by thousands of coaches offering a wide range of services, based in the USA, Canada and 50 more countries around the globe. We chatted with Amy Bastow, Noomi Referral Program Manager & Customer Success Manager and she generously provided these hourly coaching rates:  

• Life Coaches: “Most life coaches charge between $75 and $125. On the high end, we see it go up to $150 and on low end, some new coaches are charging as little as $50 per hour.”
• Career Coaches: “They charge $75 to $200 per hour. It depends on the type of career coach a client uses. If you're in an entry level position, looking to move within company and need to hire a coach, you’d find one for about $75 to $125. Career coaches dealing with executive level people looking to make a move charge $150 to $200 per hour.”
• Executive Coaches: “This area has quite a range. You’re working with individuals in leadership areas and it starts at $150 and goes up to $350 for most coaches. But for executive coaches offering life coaching, strategic sound-boarding, extensive support or other options, you can see them charging $1,000 per session.”

Differences in rates for Life and Career coaches tend to be less about levels of service and more about the experience. However, Executive Coaches may offer very different levels of support, differentiating between bronze, gold and platinum plans that let them charge a higher premium per session. Sherpa Coaching also conducts regular earnings surveys for coaches around the world – their survey numbers from 2014 are within similar ranges we’ve seen elsewhere. Average earnings per hour are:  

• Life Coaches: $170, a sharp rebound back to 2012 levels
• Business Coaches: $242, virtually unchanged from 2012-13  (help clients develop knowledge and skills)
• Executive Coaches: $335, up from $280 in our 2012-13  (coaches who work on behavioral issues)

The survey is very much worth checking out in detail, particularly for earning trends and regional earnings differences that can be fairly stark, particularly for executive coaches. What’s the key to earning your desired rate as a professional coach? As we’ve seen, experience is a very big factor, but not the only factor. Building a business takes branding, niche development and attention to the results-based processes you learned in your coaching training. Over time, you will have clients naturally referring more prospects, until you’re earning the rate that feels right for you.  

*We have an older post from 2012 in regards to this topic that you can read for additional perspective with the caveat that coaching as an industry is constantly growing and evolving.