Luxury retail workers earn about $45,000 per year to sell handbags and jewelry that can cost more than their take-home pay

• Luxury brands are increasingly having trouble finding and retaining talent for high-touch sales roles.
• Entry-level associates earn about $35,000 base pay per year, plus about $10,000 commission.

The labor crunch has arrived in luxury retail, and major brands are having to get creative about finding and retaining workers for the high-touch frontline jobs.

Luxury sales have often been touted as a more prestigious profession and longer-term career than general merchandise retail, but rising wages at companies like Target and Walmart are tightening the labor market and forcing a rethink of staffing strategies.

On average, luxury retail sales associates earn about $35,000 base pay per year, plus about $10,000 commission, per Glassdoor data. But these jobs have become increasingly multifaceted as customer relationships extend beyond the sales floor and into the digital world, all to sell items that could cost as much as an associate's yearly take-home pay.

"We feel very strongly that there is a need for salespeople again, but they need to be educated," Sandy Sholl, founder and executive chair of luxury goods distribution company MadaLuxe Group, told the Business of Fashion. "And one of the reasons why people don't want the job is because there's not been a focus on it. Nobody has made it sexy."

Still, selling someone a $20,000 handbag or a $45,000 necklace requires a different set of soft skills than scanning groceries, even if the associate isn't making much more than they would at a grocery store.

Job listings call for TikTok-style video clips to evaluate a candidate's influencer potential, the BoF reported. A job at Gucci required three years of luxury fashion experience and the ability to "maintain an active, accurate, neat and organized client book," per BoF.

Dolce & Gabbana sales associates who push items like the brand's $45, 400 gem-encrusted watch make about $37,000 in base pay with about $15,000 in additional compensation, per Glassdoor data. Gucci's base sales associate pay is similar to D&G with a $10,000 bonus for a total of $46,800 — less than the brand's $49,000 Teddy Bear shoulder bag.

Jessica Cloutier, Nordstrom's senior director of styling and sales told the BoF her team is now recruiting from the real estate sector, where client relationships and commissions are de rigueur.

"We're going to teach the fashion side of it," Cloutier said.

The BoF report also pointed to training academies from luxury houses like SMCP Group and LVMH.

Beyond recruiting and training however, the question of compensation still looms large over the industry.

Glassdoor data shared with Insider earlier this year showed the entry-level retail wage at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus were around $17 per hour, while Costco and Patagonia offered $18 and $20, respectively. The median Walmart and Target workers make about $25,000 per year.

"If brands really want to retain and attract this talent and have them stay on a more long-term basis … they're going to have to compensate more," Sukeena Rao, co-founder of Luminaire, a personal shopping services company, per BoF.

Do you work in luxury retail? Get in touch with Dominick via email (dreuter@insider.com).