by G. Kunkel

Created on: April 07, 2010   Last Updated: April 09, 2010

Every ski season people inquire about working as a ski or snowboard instructor in ski schools around the USA. It may be a job opportunity at the small local ski hill or it could be at a destination ski resort somewhere in the Western USA. If you’ve never worked as a ski or snowboard instructor before or at a ski school in the USA, the whole process may be confusing or intimidating.

If you are looking for a position as a ski or snowboard instructor in a ski school in the USA there are a number of things to consider besides the pay rate. They can often determine if you have to find a second or third job while still working as a full-time ski or snowboard instructor. These are the questions you should ask when evaluating a job opportunity as a snowboard or ski instructor at any ski school in the USA.

♦What is the total compensation by the ski school?
The pay for inexperienced ski school instructors is often dismal at even large destination ski resorts. The pay can be worse at smaller ski hills. The clientele that visit the hill may not even know that tipping is standard practice for snowsport instructors.

Instructors are generally only paid for the time they are actually teaching in the ski school. You may only get five hours of teaching time in per day. Some days you may not get work at all. Some hills will pay 15 minutes of pay for showing up even if you do not get a class. Most hills do not give show up pay. A reputable ski resort will give show up pay or give organization pay for the time spent dividing people into different class levels.

Reputable ski schools at ski resorts will also pay head count pay in addition to the standard pay rate. This means they will pay the $7-12.00 US/hours worked pay rate and around $2.00/person in the class on top of that. If the ski resort believes in large class sizes, this is where you will be compensated for that. If there is no head count pay, the ski resort may load up classes and not pay you for all that additional work involved.

Request pay for private lessons is another lucrative area for income for ski school instructors. Find out what the ski resorts policy is for private request pay. You should be able to get at least half the price of the private lesson as pay. There should also be financial incentives for those who can convert a group lesson client into a later private lesson client.

Snowboard and ski instructors can also earn additional income by tipping clientele in the USA. Unfortunately, many non-USA

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