Hair Salon Statistics: Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County had 2,636 beauty salons with employees in 2025, with 7,898 jobs between them, and 26,449 beauty salon businesses with no employees in 2024. Hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists on a payroll in the Los Angeles metro area earned a median of $20.91 an hour in May 2025.
By Salon 11:11 · Published November 13, 2026 · Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau
Key numbers
- 2,636
- Beauty salons with at least one employee in Los Angeles County in 2025, with 7,898 jobs and average annual pay of $39,426 per job
- BLS QCEW, NAICS 812112, private, 2025 annual averages
- 26,449
- Beauty salon businesses with no employees in Los Angeles County in 2024, with $919.5 million in receipts
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024, NAICS 812112
- $20.91
- Median hourly wage of hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists on a payroll in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area, 22% below the $26.85 median for all jobs there
- BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 39-5012
- 10,910
- Hairdresser, hairstylist and cosmetologist jobs on a payroll in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area
- BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 39-5012
- 77.9%
- Share of Los Angeles County beauty salons with a payroll that had fewer than five employees (2,070 of 2,656)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 812112
Salon businesses in Los Angeles County
Federal data splits salons into three categories. Beauty salons (NAICS 812112), which include hair salons, are by far the largest: 2,636 locations with employees in 2025 and 26,449 businesses with no employees in 2024. Barber shops had 215 locations with employees and 5,186 without. Nail salons had 1,982 locations with employees, 10,704 jobs between them, and 4,590 businesses without employees.
Businesses with no employees are mostly self-employed people, including stylists who rent a booth or a suite. They file taxes as a business but have no payroll, so they do not appear in the employer counts.
| Type (NAICS) | Locations with employees, 2025 | Jobs, 2025 | Average annual pay, 2025 | Businesses with no employees, 2024 | Their receipts, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty salons (812112) | 2,636 | 7,898 | $39,426 | 26,449 | $919.5 million |
| Barber shops (812111) | 215 | 667 | $40,533 | 5,186 | $188.1 million |
| Nail salons (812113) | 1,982 | 10,704 | $21,289 | 4,590 | $131.4 million |
Sources: BLS QCEW (private, annual averages) and U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics. Receipts in current dollars.
How big salons are
Most salons with a payroll are small. In 2023, 2,070 of the county's 2,656 beauty salons with employees (77.9%) had fewer than five employees in mid-March. Salons with 10 or more employees went from 260 in 2019 to 191 in 2023.
What stylists on a payroll earn
In May 2025, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area (Los Angeles and Orange counties) had 10,910 jobs for hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists on a payroll. Their median wage was $20.91 an hour and their mean was $26.10. One in ten earned less than $17.54 an hour, and one in ten earned more than $35.22. Statewide, the median was $18.59.
These wage figures cover employees only. Self-employed stylists, including most booth and suite renters, are not in the survey. The annual figures are hourly wages times a full-time year of 2,080 hours, which is one reason they are higher than the $39,426 average annual pay per salon job in the county, which counts part-time jobs too.
| Area | Jobs | Median hourly | Mean hourly | Hourly range | Mean annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area | 10,910 | $20.91 | $26.10 | $17.54 to $35.22 | $54,290 |
| California | 27,080 | $18.59 | $23.22 | $17.00 to $33.00 | $48,290 |
Hourly range: one in ten earns less than the low end and one in ten earns more than the high end. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 39-5012, all industries.
How the county has changed since 2019
From 2019 to 2025, the number of beauty salons with a payroll in the county rose 20.0% while their jobs fell 13.6%, so the average salon went from 4.2 jobs to 3.0. The number of salon businesses with no employees was 26,637 in 2019 and 26,449 in 2024, about the same. The full numbers are in our study, More Salons, Fewer Employees.
What this means if you are choosing a salon
- Most salon businesses here have no employees: in 2024 there were about 10 for every salon with staff. Solo stylists are a common part of the county's salon business, not a niche one.
- Wages are not prices. The pay figures describe what employed stylists earn, not what a cut or color costs. Prices depend on the service, the time it takes and the stylist, so ask for a quote at the consultation.
- Neither size is better on these numbers. They count businesses, jobs and pay, not the quality of the work. Choose on the consultation, the portfolio and how well the stylist listens.
Method
- Salons with employees: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Los Angeles County (FIPS 06037), private ownership, 2025 annual averages, NAICS 812112 Beauty Salons, 812111 Barber Shops and 812113 Nail Salons. Average annual pay is total wages divided by average jobs.
- Businesses with no employees: Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics, Los Angeles County, 2024 (the latest year), same three NAICS codes: number of businesses and receipts. Nonemployers have no paid employees and at least $1,000 in annual receipts.
- Salon size: Census Bureau County Business Patterns, Los Angeles County, NAICS 812112, 2023 (the latest year), employment-size classes based on the pay period including March 12.
- Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, SOC 39-5012 Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists, all industries, for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area (code 31080) and California. The relative standard error of the metro area's job count is 9.9%.
Limits
- The OEWS metro area includes Orange County as well as Los Angeles County; no separate Los Angeles County figure is published in this release.
- OEWS counts employees only, in any industry. QCEW and County Business Patterns count salon locations with employees; Nonemployer Statistics count businesses without them. None of these sources counts salon suites, and none separates hair salons from other beauty salons.
- The latest years differ by source (2025, 2024, 2023 and May 2025). Pay and receipts are not adjusted for inflation, and recent figures can be revised.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), county data files ↗ (Annual averages, 2019 to 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics (NES) ↗ (2019 to 2024)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) ↗ (2019 and 2023)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) ↗ (May 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau, NAICS 812112 Beauty Salons definition ↗ (2022 NAICS)
Cite this page
Salon 11:11 (2026). Hair Salon Statistics: Los Angeles County. https://justicesalon1111.com/research/la-county-salon-statistics
Download the data: la-county-salon-statistics.csv (CSV). You may reuse the tables with credit to Salon 11:11 and a link to this page, under CC BY 4.0.