It started with a petition. Posted online in December 2025 via MoveOn.orgthe petition claimed that the national studio chain CorePower Yoga paid unfair wages and inadequately cleaned his studios.
It was written by a CorePower instructor, Dani, who asked that her last name not be shared for fear of possible job insecurity. She explains that the petition was inspired by a conversation she had with a cleaning worker, who expressed concerns about the availability of sanitizing supplies in the studio. “We had no sanitizing wipes or sprays in the studio. I was devastated,” Dani said. “Every day my bare feet are on these floors.”
Given the concerns about cleanliness and fair wages that she shared with other CorePower instructors, Dani and her colleagues decided to take action. The petition made three requests: fairer wages for instructors and studio cleaners, better cleaning supplies and more frequent deep cleaning of the studio.
It was shared on social media along with graphics encouraging members to contact individual studios, company management and the press in support of their teachers. The social posts also asked students to freeze their memberships until February 2026 and encouraged teachers to strike during that time.
When she created the petition, Dani hoped for 200 signatures from local signers in Colorado. She didn’t expect a national conversation to arise about her petition.
By early January 2026, news of the possible strike had gone viral.
Social media is watching the possible strike
Soon, videos regarding CorePower teacher wages numbered in the hundreds. One of the early TikTok videos related to the strike, dated in late December, came from an LA-based CorePower instructor who said she recently received an increase in her teaching hourly rate from $18.30 to $20.58, effective January 2026. In the video, she questions the timing of the increase and what prompted it, suggesting a connection between the possibility of a strike and the pay increase. The clip has been viewed more than 100,000 times so far.
Some other instructors, including Dani, said they had received similar pay increases. “They gave us all a $2 raise for New Year’s,” Dani said. “The pay increases are usually about 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 sculpting class, which involved creating the class sequence, coming up with the playlist, memorizing the sequence, arriving 30 minutes before the class, and staying 30 minutes afterward. “I literally teach 30 people. The amount of money coming in from this one class…” she said towards the end of the video. “And I can only get twenty dollars for it.”
CorePower teachers are scheduled to be in the studio Stay 30 minutes before class and 30 minutes afterward. The result is essentially two hours of pay for each lesson.
A CorePower instructor from San Francisco, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, explained that she and her instructor friends consider yoga their “paid hobby” that they do in addition to their full-time career. She explained that none of them consider it an option to teach as an employed teacher because of the low rates.
The possible strike also sparked online discussions about low teacher wages among students, including New Yorker Carter Martin. Her first TikTok video about the strikedated January 6, 2026, has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
By mid-January, the strike had sufficiently saturated social media to attract attention and reporting from publications and others The cut And Fast company.
CorePower listens to instructors’ concerns
In late January, CorePower started Q&A sessions at various studios across the country as an opportunity for instructors to share their grievances. Overseen by CorePower CEO Niki Leondakis, the events allowed for a town hall-style discussion in which employees could ask questions about the company.
The same instructor from San Francisco went into the session “ready to ask tough questions.” Her focus was on the many roles she had to play in addition to being a teacher – instructor, receptionist, security guard, laundry service. “Our pay did not reflect the number of jobs we were doing,” she said.
Afterwards, she was grateful for the way the session was handled. “I don’t know if I made any difference in that question and answer session, but I felt very much like I was being listened to,” she said. The session, she explained, shared a broader perspective, which gave her context on the business scope. For example, she explained that she was unaware of the major impact the Covid closures had on CorePower’s bottom line.
What has happened in recent days with the possible strike
In an email sent to teachers on January 24, CorePower announced that they are committing to four deep cleanings per year in the studio. After this, the discussion on social media seemed to come to a standstill. In fact, it became so quiet that some wondered if the strike was still going on.
There are several posts on Reddit in the CorePower subredditall from mid-January or later, inquired whether a strike would take place in their studio. Some of the cities in question include Minneapolis, NYC, PortlandAnd Dallas. Likewise, a asked CorePower instructor from New York City on TikTok: “Are we going to strike? And what does the strike entail? And how do I do that?”
The silence, Dani said, is intentional. She was advised by the American Federation of Labor not to share details of how they organized the strike on social media.
On January 28, CorePower announced in an email to teachers that a national pay increase would go into effect on March 2 this year. In a statement, the company shared the following:
Our teachers are essential to the CorePower Yoga community and it is important to us that they feel valued and supported. We recently announced a new pay increase effective March 2, 2026. Together with previous base rate increases and a time benefit for professional growth and development that went into effect January 1, 2026, these changes represent an average increase in teacher wages of 29% nationally. In addition, we have offered new benefits such as free teacher training programs for eligible teachers, and enhanced our compensation framework to reward tenure and continuous learning. We are grateful that we are now in a strong position to deliver an unprecedented increase at CorePower Yoga and invest in our teachers following the significant impact of Covid on our business. 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, the strike is indeed still taking place. It starts on February 1st.
Although she originally spearheaded the effort, Dani has delegated these tasks to individuals at each participating studio as instructors work to form a union. In terms of where teachers and students can find out more about the likelihood of a strike at their CorePower location, she explained, “I would just recommend that they go to the coolest, least rules-following instructor in their studio, and they will probably know.” There is no website for the strike, she said.
While CorePower has taken steps to address the issues raised in the original petition, Dani hopes to continue negotiating on certain issues following the unionization activities, including providing free memberships to cleaners who work four hours a week. This wasn’t one of the petition’s requests, but she plans to add it to the platform after the union is formed.
“We’re glad we got something out of this,” Dani said. “We do see that the business community is making progress.”
What are the standard wages of yoga teachers?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statisticsthe average wage for all types of fitness instructors, including yoga teachers, was $22.20 per hour in 2024. Low-wage concerns are a common source of tension between instructors and management, whether at independent yoga studios or chain studios, gyms or health clubs.
CorePower teachers attempted to unionize in 2019 and 2020 to secure higher wages and other considerations. The only known yoga teacher organization to complete the formal steps of unionizing was a group of YogaWorks instructors in 2019.
While it is unclear whether the strike will happen, the likelihood of it happening has already affected teacher salaries at another yoga studio. Ashlee McDougall has a dual perspective as a yoga teacher and studio owner. In recent weeks, she has been active on social media with posts explaining teacher salaries and how studios determine them. She took over shortly afterwards Yogaloft Tucsonshe did her best to pay her teachers what she considered a fair rate. She quickly discovered that she wouldn’t make a profit doing that – at least not at first.
“My business partner and I paid ourselves nothing for three years to focus on raising teacher wages and marketing,” McDougall explains. Through her posts she shows that yoga studios do not always earn as much as you would expect. Still, the current situation has made her reconsider her teachers’ rates.
“When I reported on the CorePower strike, our base salary for brand new 200RYT teachers was $25. But after speaking to literally hundreds of people, we increased our base salary to $30 and $35 depending on experience, with bonuses per head.” She notes that the unlimited membership fee students pay to the studio for an entire month is only $120.
Because teacher compensation is an unregulated aspect of yoga education, instructors and studios elsewhere will be keeping an eye on how the potential for a CorePower strike develops.
Yoga diary will continue to discuss the potential for a CorePower strike via updates to this post.
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