Aerobics Instructor's Salary Explained

If you’re thinking about becoming an aerobics instructor or already have all of the necessary qualifications, you may want to know what to expect in terms of an aerobics instructor’s salary. 

Here at OriGym, we’ve done the hard work for you and done a deep dive into what you can expect from an aerobics instructor salary in UK fitness markets, as well as the factors that may affect your wage. 

In this article we'll cover:

• What is an Aerobics Instructor Average Salary?
• How Does an Aerobics Instructor's Salary Compare to Other Fitness Roles?
• 7 Factors that Influence an Aerobics Instructor's Salary

Before we start, one of the best ways to earn more as an instructor is to invest in further fitness courses. You can do this with our Personal Trainer Diploma and get qualified to teach both groups of clients and individuals on a 1-on-1 basis in as little as 4 weeks.

You can find details of all of our personal trainer courses here or download our free course prospectus!

What is an Aerobics Instructor Average Salary?

Unfortunately, because this role is so varied in terms of where you’ll work and how you’ll be employed, it’s impossible to provide an exact figure for an aerobics instructor with an average salary.

For example, salaries differ greatly between freelance or self-employed instructors and full-time contracted instructors.

Despite the many factors that can influence an aerobics instructor’s salary, we did some digging and found that Glassdoor reports the average salary as £30,819:

This means that aerobics instructor hourly wages vary between £11 for entry-level positions to £35 for more experienced instructors. This works out, according to Glassdoor, as an average of £13.76 an hour:

As you can see from the first image, there’s only 296 salaries that make up this average as they can only base the number on salaries declared by people in the industry. 

This is why it’s predominantly made up of people teaching fitness classes in gyms rather than those with their own fitness class business. 

So, if you want to know what the average is for an aerobics instructor’s salary, you can see why it’s difficult to get a specific number! 

This should give you a general idea of how much you could earn though, and what kind of figure you can expect from the salary of an aerobics instructor.

There’s several ways you can boost your aerobics instructor’s salary too, whether that’s with more qualifications or exciting ways to draw in more class members. 

How Does an Aerobics Instructor's Salary Compare to Other Fitness Roles?

Before we look at things that affect an aerobics instructor salary, and what you might do to boost it, let’s have a look at how it compares to some other roles in the fitness industry:

As you can see then, the aerobics instructor’s salary is one of the higher end positions so this is definitely a career worth pursuing!

How much you earn will depend on how well you can create a successful fitness class and some other career options, which we’ll look at next. 

7 Factors that Influence an Aerobics Instructor's Salary

We’ll look at the different factors that can affect an aerobic instructor salary and ways to maximise it now!

#1 One of the Biggest Influences on an Aerobics Instructor’s Salary is Location

Wages vary drastically between different parts of the UK based on the difference in cost of living and other factors.

It’s the same for an aerobics instructor salary too, with huge differences between London wages and those of the rest of the country.

It’s not just the wage itself that you’ll have to consider. Location will also affect the price of a spot in a gym or fitness centre if you’re looking to rent a space. 

Your aerobic trainer salary will also be affected by whether you teach in an urban or rural area. For example, teaching in an urban, city-centre location will bring you a higher salary than in slower, less inhabited areas.

In rural areas, however, you wouldn’t have to worry about the higher cost of renting a space in studios, gyms, or centres.

Therefore, though the demand is higher in city centres so is the competition so there’s pros and cons to each location! 

#2 An Aerobics Instructor’s Salary Depends on Whether They’re Freelance or Contracted

As we mentioned earlier, the average salary of an aerobics instructor is hard to determine because of the differences between full time, contracted work and freelance working.

In general, your aerobics instructor hourly wage will be higher working for yourself than it would as an employee or a gym or studio but it will often be a less dependable and regular wage.

Once you become an aerobics instructor, if you decide to branch out on your own then when you start out your income will depend on your own marketing and networking.  

This means that, at least to begin with, there’s going to be inconsistencies and times when your aerobics instructor’s salary drops. 

You may also have to pay more in travel when you’re working freelance because you’ll often be going from site to site rather than being in one venue. 

However, this does have potentially uncapped earnings once you’ve established yourself because your earnings will depend on the rates you set and how many classes you teach!

Full-time contracted positions can be a great way for newly qualified aerobics instructors to develop experience while working in a much more income-secure position than freelance positions would.  

If you can increase your fitness class attendance then people will often follow you when you branch out on your own and will attend your independent classes!

#3 How Many Classes You Teach Will Affect Your Aerobics Instructor’s Salary

A third factor that has an influence on your aerobic instructor salary is how often you work. Because instructing isn’t your standard 9-to-5 work week and is more flexible, your salary can be quite variable.

There’s no definitive industry standard for the number of classes you should teach either so you’ll have the freedom to control your own schedule. 

For those working in a fitness centre or contracted in a gym, your working hours are dictated by the business itself, and you’ll often do 40-hour work weeks at these locations for a set salary.

Because of the rigour of an aerobics class you won’t be able to teach back to back all day but, when you’re teaching freelance, you can fill up your schedule as much as you like!

One of the factors affecting freelance workers is travelling from one location to another as this will inevitably eat into some potential teaching time. 

However, it opens you up to teach in a wider variety of places which means you can vary your income and boost your aerobics instructor’s salary.

Mixing up locations means you can teach different demographics as well as in different styles of facility. 

For example, you might teach one class in a budget gym, aiming it at students. You might then find an opportunity in an upmarket fitness studio where you’re able to charge more for individual classes.

We’ll look at these different types of gym and fitness facilities in more detail now!

#4 Where You Teach Your Classes will Affect Your Aerobic Instructor’s Salary

The first obvious way in which the kind of facility you teach in would affect your aerobic instructor salary is the amount you can charge.

In a high-end gym there’ll be higher membership rates and so your rate for your classes will be a lot higher than in a budget gym.

For example, Third Space in London is a boutique space that offer a ‘Step’ class, which is what they call their aerobics offering:

As you can see from their membership prices, you would be dealing with a much higher price range for teaching classes in a place like Third Space:

A budget gym on the other hand, such as JD Gyms, may only charge £19.99 for their monthly memberships but they tend to be much bigger facilities with much higher membership rates.

As you can see, they offer over 200 classes so there’s a lot of room for you to pack your schedule and potentially boost your aerobics instructor’s salary through volume:

It can be easier to boost your numbers when you’re teaching out of a gym that’s already got a higher attendance rate because this saves you time and money on marketing.

As we mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to positively affect your aerobics instructor’s salary when you’re considering venues is to teach in a range of spaces!

This is because it will give you a wide range of experience and you’ll hit different demographics and build rapport and loyalty with class members.

Then, like we said, they’re more likely to follow you and pay a decent price for your services because you’ll have built up a reputation with them.

#5 Amount of Qualifications Will Affect an Aerobics Instructor’s Salary 

No matter where you work or in what capacity you’ll need to make sure you have at least a level 2 exercise to music qualification.

You should also have completed a level 2 fitness instructor course. This will give you the foundational skills to design and instruct a class that’s perfectly paced for different groups. 

However, the more experienced you are, and the wider variety of people you can work with, the more people will be attracted to your classes, boosting your aerobics instructor’s salary. 

Also, the more qualifications you hold the more different places you’ll be able to work, getting a wide variety of experience working with different demographics. 

For example, plenty of gyms and higher paying positions will now expect you to have a level 3 personal trainer qualification to work in a gym and teach classes. 

If you haven’t yet completed your fitness instructor qualification, you can combine level 2 and level 3 in a personal training diploma, saving money and time.

You can then enhance your expertise and your aerobics instructor’s salary by completing further CPD fitness courses. Through this training you can expand on your expertise working with groups and classes, allowing you to become a group fitness instructor and build your confidence instructing large numbers of people.

Experience teaching groups will help secure you some of the higher-paid positions and boost your aerobics instructor’s salary as you can see from this job below:

Here you could earn at least £23.10 per hour but they’re asking for group exercise instructors and the qualifications to do so. 

If you’re able to say you have the necessary qualifications, plus a deepened understanding of the demands of group training and classes.

This will help you stand out from the crowd and secure the highest option for a aerobics instructor’s salary in the UK. 

This will open up more doors and help you to secure higher paid positions. You’ll also be able to advertise your expertise and if you’re freelance or independent you’ll be able to charge more because of your enhanced qualifications and experience. 

#6 Level of Experience Will Massively Affect an Aerobic Instructor Salary in the UK

This ties into the above factor - the length and time you have been qualified and teaching will have a big effect on your aerobics instructor salary in the UK. 

It makes sense that the longer you have been teaching, the more valuable you become and the more you can earn. 

As we mentioned earlier, the difficulty of determining an aerobics instructor's average salary is that these figures contain earnings for entry level positions as well as those more experienced.

An entry level position for any fitness instructor will be around £19,000 considering most people will, like we’ve said, start off working in a gym and gaining experience.

Once you’ve gained more qualifications and more experience you can apply for roles like the one below:

The range in this aerobics instructor hourly wage is based on experience. As you can see they would prefer a year’s experience in personal training.

So, not only will there be more positions open to you the more experience you have, you’ll also be able to ask for and expect the higher end of the aerobic instructor’s salary where there’s a range like this! 

Also the more experience you have the more you'll be able to branch out into opening your own personal training studio or teaching private classes in other venues! 

#7 A Good Reputation Will Help Increase the Salary of an Aerobics Instructor

Building up a solid reputation within the world of fitness can be a challenge, and take a lot of time and effort, but it’s worth doing in the long run. 

Cementing yourself as a reliable authority to both clients and colleagues will lead to a boom in clients and create important marketing strategies for you!

For example, when you build up a good reputation people are more likely to give you positive reviews and testimonials. 

You can use this to promote yourself as an expert and reliable teacher, meaning you can then charge more for your classes.

For example, Jodie's Aerobics teaches a range of classes including aerobics and has dedicated an entire page to her testimonials:

She’s put these front and centre to promote her services to newcomers and helps her to assert herself as an aerobics expert!

People will be willing to pay when they know the classes are of a high quality and you come highly recommended.

This is what’s called ‘social proofing’ where people who’ve tried out your sessions recommend you by digital word-of-mouth.

People will trust real people who’ve tried out your classes, especially if they’re friends and family, more than just a brand or company that’s promoting itself. 

All of this will help raise your aerobics instructor’s salary and help you attract as many class members as possible, as well as meaning you can charge more. 

Before You Go!

Don’t forget, one of the best ways to advance your career as a fitness professional is with our industry-leading Personal Training Diploma. With this certification, you'll be qualified to teach both large numbers of clients and others on a 1-on-1 basis.

You can find details of this and our other courses if you download our free course prospectus here!