Pathetic Income for Sales Directors in 2025
Written by Frosty Rose
It’s that time of year again! No, I’m not talking about the hints of spring that are teasing me between sleet showers. I’m talking about when Mary Kay Canada releases its income disclosure statement. Because, apparently, direct selling lobbying in Canada is weaker than in the US, where no such income disclosure is required. However, as we’ve discussed before , the markets are similar enough to make a decent comparison.
The 2025 MK income disclosure looks like this:
But what does it REALLY tell us? Essentially, not much has changed since 2024, which doesn’t say much for Mary Kay’s “executive income for part-time work” claims.
Consultants eligible for commissions continue to hover just over 11%, and they average a whopping C$214. In. A. Year! You might be able to take your hubby out for a nice meal for that. But if you include the kids, you’ll have to settle for fast food. One time a year!
Directors nudged up from 1.6% of the sales force to 1.8%. And they’re earning an average of C$21,143 per year, up from C$19,658 last year. Given that the most recent estimates that I can find for Canada’s poverty line for a single person are around C$24,000/year, this means MK sales directors are making less than poverty level wages. And this is interesting: Only 56% of sales directors and national sales directors qualify for a Mary Kay car.
Nationals also hold steady at .04% of the sales force, and their income is up slightly from C$122,000/year to C$127,888/year, which is still a marked decline from 2023’s C$149,440.
Keep in mind, for my American readers, that these are all Canadian dollars. At the time of writing, $1.00 US = $1.44 Canadian. The conversion of those figures is:
- Consultant: C$214 = US$148.61
- Director: C$21,143 = US$14,682
- National: C$127,888 = US$88,811
I have a lot of adjectives I could use to describe this state of affairs. But I’ll leave it to our readers to draw their own conclusions on the viability of working 60 hours a week to earn less than US$15,000 per year.
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Of course, those figures are before taxes, chargebacks, car copays, gas, section 2 materials, postage, packaging, director jacket, dry cleaning, meeting fees, bribes for your downline, travel, accommodations, food, tickets to seminar and other events, and, in order to keep your position. inventory.
What’s left, if anything, after all that is the number that counts.
Plus these numbers are averages, and in a small sample size (NSDs) a few high value outliers can easily skew the average and give the impression that the odds are better than they are.
By contrast, a large sample (IBCs eligible for commission) that’s heavily weighted towards the bottom pulls down the average so much that it tells the real story: the majority of them are making zilch or close to it.
There’s a reason why MK USA doesn’t release these figures, and it’s because if potential recruits saw how bad the odds were they’d never sign on.
One of the biggest lies about the commission checks that are published in InTouch or waved around at guest events… is that these are commission numbers on orders BEFORE deducting the chargebacks for returned inventory.
And they leave off the date…because it was just one time… very long ago…
Keep in mind it costs ~$1000/year to stay active/eligible for commissions. This means the real average income for eligible IBCs is a loss of ~$850 (in USD) annually.
All of this before the other business expenses Popinki mentioned. Ladies, these losses (and losses from ineligible consultants) are built right into the system, and provide all the upline cash flow.
Run from this silly game that you cannot win!
NO MINIMUMS! Except when there are.
Yes, another dirty little MK lie, for sure. No “minimums”…unless you want to be eligible for commissions!
Id love to see how the Fog People spin these facts!
The Canadian market is so much different than ours!!!
Can I see your last 12 commission amounts?
Oh well you see um I was um in the process of ramping down my business to focus on the kids so it wasn’t as high as it normally would be! But let’s talk about this purse you can win!
“Fog People”
Oh, that made me laugh. This is the best term yet for MK ladies!