Salon owners and schools make competing claims on booth rental bill

Small salon owners and cosmetology schools offered contrasting perspectives on House Bill 644, the measure to allow booth rental for cosmetologists.

Eileen Tady, owner of Hair Rate of Beauty in Northeast Philadelphia, said HB 644 would level the playing field with barbering and salon suites and help struggling small businesses. "My biggest issue with being a salon owner is not being allowed to do booth rental in my small business," she said, calling the current situation "a real slap in the face" and describing salon suites as "glorified booth rental" that advantage larger corporations.

School representatives including Aaron Schenck and Debbie Dunn supported some bill features but warned that booth rental raises federal earnings-reporting and accreditation risks. Schenck urged that if schools are included in expedited location-change processes, schools should be explicitly allowed to use them; he also asked for protections if board inspectors could be hired as contractors. Dunn highlighted consumer-safety questions: "You have somebody running a booth... Who are they complaining to? Who's the insurance responsible for? If they wanna sue, who are they suing?" she asked.

Both schools and salon owners urged the committee to consider written agreements and owner guidelines to protect consumers and to prevent underreporting of income that could jeopardize school accreditation under new federal rules.