Published January 30, 2026 01:58PM
It started with a petition. Posted online in December 2025 via MoveOn.org, the petition claimed that the national studio chain CorePower Yoga paid unfair wages and inadequately cleaned its studios.
It was written by a CorePower instructor, Dani, who asked that her last name not be shared for fear of potential job insecurity. She explains that the petition was inspired by a conversation she had with a cleaning employee, who expressed concern about the availability of sanitizing supplies at the studio. “We didn’t have any sanitizing wipes or sprays in the studio. I was grossed out,” said Dani. “My bare feet are on these floors every single day.”
Given the concerns about cleanliness as well as fair wages that she shared with other CorePower instructors, Dani and her coworkers decided to act. The petition made three requests: fairer wages for instructors and studio cleaners, better cleaning supplies, and more frequent studio deep-cleans.
It was shared on social media along with graphics encouraging members to reach out to individual studios, corporate management, and the press in support of their teachers. The social posts also asked students to freeze their memberships for the duration of February 2026 and encouraged teachers to go on strike during that time.
When she created the petition, Dani was hoping for 200 signatures from local signers in Colorado. She didn’t anticipate the nationwide conversation her petition would spark.
By early January 2026, word of the potential strike had gone viral.
Social Media’s Take on the Potential Strike
Soon videos related to CorePower teacher wages numbered in the hundreds. One of the early TikTok videos related to the strike, dated late December, came from a LA-based CorePower instructor who said she recently received an increase to her hourly teaching rate from $18.30 to $20.58, effective January 2026. In the video, she questions the timing of the raise and what prompted it, suggesting a connection between the potential for a strike and the pay hike. The clip has more than 100,000 views to date.
Some other instructors, including Dani, shared that they had received similar raises. “They gave us all a $2 raise for New Year’s,” said Dani. “Usually the raises are like 30 cents.”
A former NYC CorePower instructor who expressed support for the strike on TikTok shared her frustrations with wages. She said that when she worked at the company, she was paid $20 to teach a yoga sculpt class, which entailed creating the class sequence, coming up with the playlist, memorizing the sequence, arriving 30 minutes before class, and staying 30 minutes afterward. “I’m literally teaching 30 people. The amount of money that is coming in from this one class…” she said toward the end of the video. “And I can only be given $20 of it.”
CorePower teachers are scheduled to be in the studio for 30 minutes before class and stay 30 minutes afterward. The result is effectively two hours of pay for each class.
One San Francisco-based CorePower instructor, who requested anonymity out of fear for retribution, explained that she and her instructor friends consider yoga their “paid hobby” that they do in addition to full-time careers. She explained none of them consider it an option to pursue teaching as a salaried teacher due to the low rates.
The potential strike also sparked online discourse about low teacher wages among students, including New Yorker Carter Martin. Her first TikTok video about the strike, dated January 6, 2026, has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
By mid January, the strike had sufficiently saturated social media to draw the attention and reporting of publications, including The Cut and Fast Company.
CorePower Listens to Instructor Concerns
Toward the end of January, CorePower initiated Q&A sessions at various studios throughout the country as an opportunity for instructors to share grievances. Overseen by CorePower CEO Niki Leondakis, the events allowed for a town hall-type discussion in which employees could ask questions about the company.
The same San Francisco instructor went into the session “ready to ask hard questions.” Her focus was on the many roles that she was expected to play—instructor, front desk associate, security guard, laundry service—in addition to teacher. “Our pay rate was not reflecting the amount of jobs that we were doing,” she said.
Afterward, she felt appreciative of how the session was handled.“I don’t know if I made any difference in that Q&A, but it felt very much like I was being heard,” she said. The session, she explained, shared a more expanded perspective, which provided her with context on the business scope. For example, she explained that she hadn’t been aware of the extensive impact Covid closures had on CorePower’s bottom line.
What’s Happened With the Potential Strike in Recent Days
In an email sent to teachers on January 24, CorePower announced that they were committing to four studio deep-cleanings per year. Following this, discussion on social media appeared to quiet. In fact, it became so quiet that some wondered if the strike was still happening.
On Reddit, multiple posts in the CorePower subreddit, all dated mid-January or later, inquired whether there would be a strike affecting their studio. Some of the cities in question include Minneapolis, NYC, Portland, and Dallas. Similarly, a New York City CorePower instructor asked on TikTok, “Are we going on the strike? And what does the strike entail? And how do I do it?”
The silence, Dani shared, is intentional. She received guidance from the American Federation of Labor not to share details about how they were organizing the strike on social media.
On January 28, CorePower announced via an email to teachers that a nationwide base pay increase would be effective March 2 of this year. In a statement, the company shared the following:
Our teachers are essential to the CorePower Yoga community, and it’s important to us that they feel valued and supported. We recently announced a new wage increase effective March 2, 2026. Together with previous base rate increases and a Professional Growth and Development time benefit that took effect on January 1, 2026, these changes represent an average increase in teacher wages of 29% nationwide. In addition, we offered new benefits, such as free Teacher Training programs for eligible teachers, and enhanced our compensation framework to reward tenure and continuous learning. We’re grateful we’re now in a strong position to offer an unprecedented increase at CorePower Yoga and invest in our teachers after the significant impact of Covid on our company. We remain committed to continuing to invest in our teachers and studios and giving our students the experience they deserve.
So…Is the CorePower Yoga Teacher Strike Still Happening?
According to Dani, yes, the strike is still taking place. It’s set to begin on February 1st.
Though she was originally spearheading efforts, Dani has delegated these duties to individuals at each participating studio as instructors work toward unionizing. In terms of where teachers and students can learn more about the likelihood of a strike at their CorePower location, she explained, “I would just recommend that they go to the coolest, least rule-following instructor in their studio, and they will probably know.” There is no website for the strike, she said.
Although CorePower has taken steps to address the issues named in the original petition, Dani hopes to negotiate certain points further after unionizations, including providing free memberships to cleaners who provide four hours of labor per week. This was not one of the petition’s requests, but she intends to add it to the platform after the union is formed.
“We’re happy to have gotten something out of this,” Dani said. “We do see that corporate is making steps forward.”
What Are Standard Yoga Teacher Wages?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for all types of fitness instructors, including yoga teachers, was $22.20 per hour in 2024. Concerns related to low pay rates are a common source of tension between teachers and management, whether at independently owned yoga studios or chain studios, gyms, or health clubs.
CorePower teachers attempted unionization to secure higher pay rates and other considerations in 2019 and 2020. The only known yoga teacher organization to complete the formal steps for unionization was a group of YogaWorks instructors in 2019.
Although it’s unclear if the strike will take place, the potential for it has already affected teacher pay at one other yoga studio. Ashlee McDougall has a dual perspective as both yoga teacher and studio owner. In recent weeks, she has been vocal on social media with posts explaining teacher pay rates and how studios determine them. Shortly after she took over Yoga Loft Tucson, she made an effort to pay her teachers what she considered a fair rate. She quickly learned that in order to do so, she wouldn’t make a profit—at least not at first.
“My business partner and I didn’t pay ourselves ANYTHING for three years to focus on increasing teachers’ pay and marketing,” explains McDougall. She conveys through her posts that yoga studios don’t always make as much as you might expect. Yet the current situation has prompted her to rethink her teachers’ rates.
“When I posted about the CorePower strike, our base pay for brand new 200RYT teachers was $25. But after talking to literally hundreds of people, we increased our base pay to $30 and $35, depending on experience, with per head bonuses.” She notes that the unlimited membership rate that students pay to the studio for an entire month is only $120.
With teacher compensation an unregulated aspect of yoga teaching, instructors and studios elsewhere will be watching how the potential for a CorePower strike evolves.
Yoga Journal will continue to cover the potential for a CorePower strike via updates to this post.
