Parents Meet Fees & Overtime Pay

[gymmom1010]

I was wondering what others' experiences are when it comes to meet fees and how their gyms calculate them. If our coaches work "overtime" attending our weekend meets, the families are required to pay them "time and a half". The overtime rate is added up, split between each gymnast, and built in to our meet fee. I'm trying to see if this is a common practice. Thank you!

 

[Coach Kate]

As a coach, I received a flat rate for every session I coached, not my hourly/overtime rate. For travel meets, I also received hotel arrangements and per diem cash for meals.

From what I've heard, this is more common than what you're describing. It would be astronomically expensive in some cases, like state, where because of age groups, I coached 7 sessions for only two levels, close to 30 hours in a single weekend on top of my normal schedule.

 

[JBS]

We have no booster club anymore... we have a set fee per session for our coaches. Food... hotel... travel is all paid for too. Our sessions fees are higher than our coaches typical wages as they are working on the weekends in addition to their regular hours.

Each state has overtime wage laws that must be followed.

 

[gymmom1010]

As a coach, I received a flat rate for every session I coached, not my hourly/overtime rate. For travel meets, I also received hotel arrangements and per diem cash for meals.

From what I've heard, this is more common than what you're describing. It would be astronomically expensive in some cases, like state, where because of age groups, I coached 7 sessions for only two levels, close to 30 hours in a single weekend on top of my normal schedule.

Hello! Thank you so much for your response and the insight. The model you described makes perfect sense. That's exactly what's happening...the states meet has multiple sessions, and over 20 hours of "time and a half" is being charged directly to the parents.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

We have zero insight or breakdown into this part of our “coaches fees”. I hope our coaches are being compensated fairly for their time, they often work with zero days off for weeks at a time during meet season. So time and a half seems fair to me.

 

[gym_dad32608]

It is very black box at most gyms from the parents side. But what Coach Kate describes is how our current gym does it too. Regardless, it stinks, but arguing with gym owners about this tends to be a fruitless exercise. If you really cant stand it, then its best to try and move gyms because I am almost certain you will not convince owner to change their policy.

 

[JBS]

@gymmom1010 It may sound crazy... but this is why we ended our booster club. We just charge the parents what it takes for us to cover our costs and make a profit at this point. Most clubs are just businesses that someone owns and is trying to make a profit off of.

We no longer give a breakdown on seasonal fees for any sort of coaching fees or travel. The only thing that is individually broken down are fees from others... like competition entry fees... USAG fee... etc. If seasonal fees are $800/per athlete and we end up under or over by $10,000 for the year... we do not charge or refund... we just use that underage or overage in figuring next years numbers.

Just understand that one meet difference could be $10,000 depending on how many coaches you are taking to a meet and if it is a fly meet etc. Say you are taking 6 coaches at $500 plane tickets and they end up having sessions from Friday morning to late Sunday. You house them in 3 hotel rooms of the host hotel at $300/night for 4 nights. You are at $6,600 right there with no food... no coaching fees. Say you are using standard GSA per diem rates and the meet in San Francisco that does not provide food... the below chart says they should each get $506 in per diem for the weekend...

Per diem rates

GSA establishes the maximum CONUS (Continental United States) Per Diem rates for federal travel customers.

www.gsa.gov

Now you are just under $10,000 without even paying the coaches for their labor yet.