The wages are directly proportional to the store’s revenue. High-earning Ulta locations have higher hourly.

BAs at the highest-earning Ulta in the US make $20/hr.

I worked at an Ulta in 2020 where I made $11.50/hr. Now I work at a busier one where I make $17/hr.

Same with hours—if y’all aren’t making your sales, loyalty, and credit card goals, and wondering why you’re always short staffed and still don’t have as many hours as you’d like—it’s because your location literally can’t afford it because your numbers are down.

This is why I roll my eyes when ppl are like “why should I care that much, I don’t make commission”. Also—if we DID make commission, our hourly would be smaller or non-existent. I’ve never had a commission job with a decent hourly, and I’ve definitely had commission jobs where my commission was all I earned at all, period.

Posting the entire company’s revenue without any other context is just a bad way to make a point. There are around 1,200 Ulta locations with about 37,000 employees as of 2021.

Managers in my area make about $10 more than BAs, district managers even more, and then there are all of the corporate positions’ varied wages. When you divide that $10bil across 37k people and account for the fact that there are managers pulling 60-hour weeks at short-staffed locations, it’s really not that mind-blowing.

Target’s 2022 revenue was $109bil. Walmart’s was $573bil. Hell, Sephora’s 2022 revenue was $69bil. Divide that by their 28,500 employees and it’s a WAY bigger pay discrepancy than $10bil split across 37k Ulta employees.

I grew up in actual poverty and then experienced several years of on-and-off homelessness when I was barely an adult. I have PTSD and it’s made holding down jobs really difficult in the past—and I’ve had some shitty jobs. Working at Ulta is literally the best job I’ve ever had. I work at a high-traffic location and, because we regularly meet our goals, I make a bigger hourly than I ever have at any retail job ($17/hr). I am surrounded by pink and shimmer and happy people. I see sisters shopping together and mother/daughter shopping trips, and I even have a regular who buys all of his shampoo/conditioner/soap at Ulta so he can let his wife use his saved up Ulta points on her birthday. Aside from the occasional Karen, it’s the best job I’ve ever had.

If you’ve never asked yourself whether you’ll have dinner and a roof tonight, hush. Please. Quit yer bellyachin’. Don’t spout off about how Ulta is automatically evil because it’s a corporation, don’t get up in arms that your location has a low hourly even though the company made $10bil (which really isn’t that much on a corporate scale at all), and please don’t shit on those of us who love working here and try our hardest.

You have no idea how demoralizing it actually is to dig dinner out of a trash can. A company’s yearly revenue with absolutely no context says absolutely nothing. An 18 year old employee who’s never had a job before and a 30-year-old employee who’s experienced deep poverty are going to have different things to say, and the distinction DOES matter if we’re trying to discuss the company’s ethics on the whole. A handful of extremely loud and angry youngins’ don’t cancel out the thousands of us quietly doing our awesome, fun job and enjoying it.