As far as Hawai’i law is concerned….if you have a massage studio or other location where clients come to you on a regular basis you are required to work under a Massage Establishment License (MAE) and need to have that license along with your massage therapist license displayed in your treatment room. It blows me away how many massage therapists don’t know this. You should have learned it in massage school, and it may have even been on your test!
Until 2013, massage establishments were supervised by the department of health. They had a set of requirements mostly geared towards sanitary practices, and they could inspect you at any time to make sure you were meeting these sanitary requirements. In 2013 this responsibility shifted to the DCCA and while the health department requirements were still law, it was a self certification process that was not verified. In 2018 the health department laws were repealed and currently there are no legal sanitation requirements for MAEs.
However, you still need to have a MAE because it is required by law. To be a member of the Big Island Massage Network, we require that you follow either the old sanitation requirements that were law pre 2018, or the new proposal for sanitation laws soon to be ratified. Here is an unofficial draft of the new requirements.
Key items of note from this proposed draft: toilet must be within 200’. A handwash basin must be “conveniently located” (for new construction, it must be in the treatment room.) Hot water is no longer required as it was in the old health department rules. If its a room in your house, that room must only be used for massage and have a solid door without a lock.
The address of your MAE must match your practice location listed on the BIMN website.
You can work under someone elses MAE but the principle massage therapist must register you under that MAE.
Make sure to print and display both your massage therapist and massage establishment license in your treatment room. Here are instructions on how to print them.