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Today I'm ranting again about the lack of the "executive income" in Mary Kay. Oh, I know the arguments by the Kaybots.... but what if women really don't WANT to make an executive income.

The fact is, almost no one is making that executive income. If they say they are, they're probably lying.

Case in point: My former area. The sales directors are pathetic. There are currently 21 directors in the area. And the top 10 provide some very interesting information. I've taken the commission and year-to-date personal retail orders to see how much these women are making.

Any time I criticize the low commissions earned by most of the directors, I'm told that they're selling zillions of dollars of products to supplement that. Well, here's the (un)proof.

 Below are the numbers for my former area. You have to click on it to see them full size.

Based on the January 2008 results for the area, I've calculated annual commissions for the top ten. I've subtracted 35% for unit expenses that must be paid out of that commission. Frankly, I almost always see the unit expenses eating up 40% to 60% of the commission checks, but just to play it safe, I've used an even smaller number (35%) to estimate expenses.

Then we've got the product sales. The number 3 director is always tops in personal retail ordered, and I do think she sells most of her products. But even as "smokin" as she is, she'll only profit about $22k from product sales this year... if she keeps her expenses very low and sells everything at full price (to net her a profit of 40% on the product sales).

You'll also see that a couple of directors (including the top one) have a figure of $11k for retail orders with a star next to them. That's because they're not even in the top ten for sales, and the most they could have ordered based upon #10 on the retail order list, is about $11k. Wow... they're really "working their personal business," aren't they? That's about $350 a week in retail sales.

Add up the profit from commission and the profit from product sales, and you see that the top dog, the Queen of Mean, makes only about $42,000 per year. The next best sales director is #3, making $39k per year. I find that hilarious because #3 was my senior, and way back in 2000 she always talked about how she was able to stay home with her kids and make an executive income. She wasn't making an executive income then, and eight years later, she's still not!

How sad that I always thought my senior director was so ethical. And here she was, recruiting with that bait of "executive income," knowing all along that she was lying and was not earning the executive income she claimed.

Notice that bottom 3 of the 10 on this chart are making  only $20k per year as a director. And there are 11 more directors in the area who are making even less than that.

Hello!!!! 14 directors out of 21 in an area (67%) are making $20k or less per year as a Mary Kay director. And while this is a small area, I don't think the statistics for the larger areas are any better. They may have more directors, but I bet 67% of the directors in those areas are also making $20k or less per year.

How pathetic. Sign me up for Mary Kay! (NOT!)