Mary Kay Sales Directors Enriching the Lives of Their Assistants?
A Mary Kay sales director surveyed sister directors to see how much they paid their office assistants. Check out the responses she got…
- $8.50 per hour is what I pay my assistant… she updates my unitnet site, mails “I” status postcards, “T” status letters, and sends birthday/anniversar y emails. Her avg pay is about $30 per month….She makes more if we are doing a “campaign” and need to mail out letters to all consultants in unit…I do this about 3-4 times per year.
- $10/hour. Me and three other Directors share her so she gets close to full-time b/t the three of us.
- DFW, TX: $8/hr & 30% product discount
- $8 per hour plus bonuses
- I just hired a new assistant at $10 per hour, plus 10% of my monthly bonus. I decided several years ago that my assistant should have incentive to make sure I am being successful so that is why I do a % of my bonus. It seems to be enticing.
- I live in Michigan and most of the gals around here pay between $10-15 per hour. I pay $10. and my gal helps to tidy up around the office, kitchen and do office work of all kinds. It will be interesting to see the rates. I know so many women work in the mall and are getting $9 at most and then the hours are not great!
- From CO: I pay $12.00 an hour for mine and she is well worth every cent. Since I can’t provide benefits, I keep a refrigerator stocked with Pepsi for her and every once in a while (usually once a month) I’ll give her my gas credit card and tell her to go fill up on me.
- I pay $10 an hour for an adult, $8 for a teen, OR $12 an hour in product!
- I pay $10.00 an hour. I am in California and min wage is $8.75. She does all of my wifely & motherly duties, not yet cut her loose on MK tasks. But may soon…
- $10/hour plus 25% discount on her personal order
- Washington state $10 pr hr to start
- $11 per hour
- I think $10 hr is minimum w/taxes taken out
- From FL: works at my house for 2-4 hours a week. I will often send her home with work she can do there and bring back when it’s done. I started her at $8 per hour and increased to $9 after a year.
I guess none of these sound too bad, especially considering that in my area, directors only “paid with product.” That’s because they really couldn’t afford to pay anything at all, with what little they were making as MK directors.
I would love to hear some feedback on this from former directors and former office assistants. (Assistant horror stories also welcome and much appreciated!)
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Comments (20)
PinkSixTimes
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“I pay $12.00 an hour for mine and she is well worth every cent.” Ha – that is hilarious. My sister worked for a Director as her assistant. I can tell you that Directors are CHEAP. The more they seemingly make, the less they are willing to pay. They want everything for nothing, and YOU should feel “privileged” to work for them. I mean, they have consultants and other directors who would just fall over themselves to be “in their space”. Why, as their lowly assistant, wouldn’t you want to do the same?
Side note: The director my sister worked for was knee-deep in debt. She is no longer in MK at all.
Another friend of mine worked for Allison Lamar after she was out of MK, but she was still living in that mentality. She was hired as her assistant and Allison wanted to “pay” her with her tapes and programs. Yea. That pays the bills.
The thing that gets to me is that these Directors actually think and bee-lieve that $8 or $9 an hour is GOOD pay. Trying feeding children and paying rent on 8 bucks an hour – especially when they keep your hours at 2-4 a week. $32 a week before taxes…? Wow – where will I spend it first?!?!!?
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exibc78
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Wifely Duties? I love that one. Is she sleeping with your husband?
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Kinzie
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If I’m reading that right, SD will allow Assistant to take care of her house and KIDS but not her MK business? Oh my goodness (said with eyes popping out of my head)!!!
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Kinzie
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Well, that shoots down the ol’ “do MK so you can stay home with your family”. Staying home means more than just your presence/being in close proximity to your family. I’m so sad about this. I wish there was a way to leave comments.
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Bethiepoo
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That was my first thought. “ALL my wifely duties” ???? :-O
Well that should free up about 8.5 minutes every couple of weeks.
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Lazy Gardens
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“I pay $10 an hour for an adult, $8 for a teen, OR $12 an hour in product!”
Yes, $12/hour in product … which cost her $6, for which she gets a commission of 13% … so she’d really be paying $5.22 an hour and getting her unit production up at the same time. I’m in awe of her generosity.
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MK Taints the Color Pink
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My thoughts exactly!
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flyingcat
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I know so many women work in the mall and are getting $9 at most and then the hours are not great!
I’ve worked “in the mall” off & on since my kids were young. I love it! My hours are extremely flexible. We have a very nice clientele. When I leave work, I don’t take it home with me…what I take home are great clothes for myself and my family at a sweet discount!
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TRACY
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What’s so funny about this is that sales directors will tell you they are making SOOOOOO much money. If that’s the case, why don’t they pay their assistants more? If they’re helping to bring in so much money, they should be paid more, no?
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Lynn
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Personally I’m skeptical that they are even paying this much. Mary Kay encourages directors to project the “image of success” (aka lie) constantly, so why wouldn’t they lie about this as well? If they really want to know what MK assistants are getting, ask the assistants.
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Marie
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With the meager earnings, if any, made with Mary Kay, I’d be surprised if they were truly generous with their assistants.
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advertisingchick
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She doesn’t have benefits, but she has all the Pepsi she could ever want.
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ttp
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I was the office assistant for a new sales director for two years, and a SSD for about a year. This was in the mid-90′s. The SD paid me less than minimum wage at $6.00 per hour. (She was my “friend” and I was doing her a favor by helping her cut costs!) The SSD paid me $8.00 per hour. I had just returned my product back to MK for repurchase, so I was a high risk to have around. She took a significant amount of crap for having me work for her when I should have been shunned.
About the SD: We had joined MK at the same time, her with a full store and me with a $600. So she had the attention of the upline right away. She was a very good seller and a decent recruiter. Her “angle” was to act as a mother figure to lure young women in. And it worked! With her peers she became their “best friend.”
She was a high “I” as she used to put it, and bragged about Christine Peterson who would be coming to her director debut. She had big plans and big dreams and was willing to do the work to get there. The problem was I asked to many questions as I completed the usual office tasks. She finished DIQ with 6 family members at the last minute. So I asked why their showcases were sitting in her garage collecting dust. She had me do fake returns to get rid of old product. I was to make each item look sampled or partially used, liquids got dumped into the toilet, and I chose random people out of the phone book to be the customer doing the return. (We mailed the product back to the company in those days.)
With her the cars came and went, always with an excuse, never the real reason which was her unit didn’t make their ordering quota. Unfortunately, her and her hubby had recently gone through bankrupcy, so she couldn’t top off with up to $2400 ruby orders liked she used to. When creditors called I was to say she was not in, even if she was in the same room with me.
Since I questioned the integrity of doing fake returns every time she asked me to do so, she started doing it in my absense. The next time I worked 1/3 of her product would be gone, coincidentally limited edition that didn’t sell, and anything with older age dates. Of course I’d inquire about where it all went, and she’d claim her accountant told her she could dump it. The same professional who let her deduct her director suit, acrylic nails, etc. Or so she said.
So if she’s rolling in dough as she claimed, why were creditors calling, why was she paying me only $6/hr and why did she make scenes at restaurants to get them to comp her meals? After the worst scene I told her I would never go to a restaurant with her again. She apologized to me, but never to the wait staff. She only created scenes when her charming warm chatting didn’t work.
At one point she got me another office gig with the SSD I mentioned above. This lady was actually honest, and had integrity. I helped set up her office and she was extremely grateful. The worst thing about her was she asked me to pick up her kids from school. I hated doing that, but never figured out a way to get out of it. So as I worked for SSD, the SD who clearly considered me her property began phone stalking me at SSD’s office. If I answered the phone, she’d tell me I could only answer the phone for her (SD). I told her it was reasonable for me to answer the phone in an office setting. That pissed her off so she took to finding out when I would be working for SSD so SD could keep tabs on me. Finally she started just showing up at SSD’s home with convoluted reasons to be there.
The event that ended my association with SSD and my friendship with SD was when SSD asked me to make giant wands for them to carry at career conference. I made beautiful star wands for them with streamers, tastefully applied glitter, decoupage, their unit names on them, etc. I’m very artsy and I remembered the stupid looking ones I had seen at Seminar, so I made sure that the one’s they were going to carry were magnificent. And they were. Unfortunately, they fought over who was to pay me. SSD thought that they would each pay for their own, while SD said since she didn’t “place the order” SSD ought to pay for both. I wouldn’t let it rest. I expected to get paid for my time. I provided itemized bills for my time and materials, so eventually they each paid for their own wands. But that was the end.
SD tried a few times to get me to be a preferred customer by trying full-sized product, then being obligated to pay for them. One set in particular was that first Botanical Line of body wash and lotion. To me it smelled like rhubarb and had too much witch hazel in it. It irritated my skin. Oh was she mad because instead of paying for these items I returned them to her. Our friendship and work association was over by then. I was sick of her manipulation and bullying tactics that I had seen her do with others, and was now doing to me. I grieved that loss for quite awhile and will always wonder if she gave a crap about me at all or if it was all a game to her.
Our last conversation: Me: “You used me.” SD: *humph* “You let me.”
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onelessSD
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wow- TTP- that’s awful! shame on her. MK women drive me crazy.
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raisinberry
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“You let me.”…huh. You let me.
Well that’s classic Mary Kay. Blame the one who exposes the fraud as the one responsible for it. Yep ttp, it was all your fault.
After a while, you really notice just how mentally ill, those who stay in Mary Kay, really are.
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Kinzie
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That gave me chills. It’s almost evil. Sorry that she took advantage of you so badly, TTP
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OldMinks
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I was a IBC that worked for my SD. She paid me at first $10 an hour, we are in California. Then she started paying me in product and pushing me to order. I refused cause she was no longer paying me. She would borrow product from me and never replace it, instead she took it off what she owed me so I had to order again to get it replaced. I did office work in the beginning but it turned from that into housework. She wanted everything done a certain way or it was wrong. I finally quit working for her after my tax guy said paying me with product was illegal. During this time she would call and text me all day long like I was her personal slave. I told her that I do have a life and I’m not always available to her when she wants me to be. We got into a huge fight cause I wouldn’t take her to the airport early one morning cause I had to take my kids to school. She told me to have them walk instead..it was miles and miles away!!! Kids come first huh? Then I started ignoring her calls and texts. I quit MK about six months later.
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unpinkedassistant
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The ESSD I worked for had a Cadillac unit and she was downright miserly. She believed it was a priviege to work for her and wanted everything for cheap or nothing.
We shared an office and she had the desks set up where she could watch over my shoulder what I was doing at all times. I worked 20 hours a week and truly there was 30 hours of work to be done. Starting pay for me was $7. an hour and ending pay for $10. I took a tremendous work load off her but only her husband ever told me I was doing an excellent job and offered me raises.
If her grandchildren visited they were told I couldn’t talk to them because I had to work. She had dogs and cats and treated them better than she ever treated me. The animals loved me and I think it made her angry.
I was never offered even a sample of a product either. She was a fake Christian, attending church services and invoking God when it was convenient in her business. Her personality was fake too. They hid their beer in the bottom vegetable bins of the refrigerator and hid their liquor in the garage!
She was a totally fake personality and did not care for anybody. Those in her unit were only there to make her money. She and her national frequently had their heads together to see who they could drag up the career ladder.
After two years of this treatment I ended up feeling very demoralized. They were losing money in spite of a large gross income and were under tremendous pressure. They started taking it out on me and finally I would not take any more so I quit.
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BlueLady
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$10 for an adult, $8 for a teen? —> ageist.
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Andie
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I am/”was?”a MK assistant. She paid me $10/hour and wanted 2 hours a week. That was fine until had me doing well over 2 hours. I am talking like 10-12 hours a week. She even wanted me to make her personal schedule. Common sense things like “wake up, shower, brush teeth, etc! I gave her my bill which totaled up to over $100- she hasn’t spoken to me, contacted me or paid me!! I was thinking to myself “what if I am charging to much!? Ya right! Seeing this list I definetly know I wasn’t. I also didn’t get anything else from her- no help for gas or printing materials (she didn’t have a printer). I guess not all MK consultants are honest
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