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ThinkProgress: Exotic dancers at a Manhattan strip club are protected by labor law and therefore must be paid at least minimum wage, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Rick’s Cabaret denied more than 1,900 strippers wages and forced them to pay fees under the pretense that the women were “independent contractors.”
That's really mean of those companies to do that, though I'm surprised that people didn't catch it in their contracts when they signed it. If there was something weird like that that I saw, then I would research what it meant and do something about it. The Independent Contractor label probably has some benefits too that they don't know about (could be that they only have to work the shift that they want to, I don't know) but the wage loss is pretty bad.I would only accept that if they gave free housing in exchange for the lack of minimum wage.
I think this is another interesting lawsuit against strip clubs, just like the law about exotic dancers not being an art based career. I think the government is really backing themselves into a corner with the inability to define what type of job exotic dancers are. On one side they say they are not artist but the other they also say they have to be paid as minimum wage employees. I think lawsuit like this could be avoid if the government defined what the job is. Part of the just seems like it is in the service industry and therefor should follow those laws. It would seem to make a lot of sense if they got paid like waiters and waitresses.
It is a shame that strip clubs are illegally denying their workers proper pay. To me, just as Nathan and Jenni stated, it would make sense that strippers would be paid in the same fashion that waiters and waitresses get paid. At the same time, however, there are so many waiters and waitresses who are paid well below minimum wage, and are paid very little in tips as well. There are also restaurants that do not allow their wait staff to keep the full amount of the tips they are earning. When this system is applied to strip clubs, it is perhaps more controversial, since strippers are the workers being illegally underpaid. I think that there definitely needs to be some sort of change in regulation and execution of laws dealing with 'Independent Contractors.'
I was surprised how much money companies make when they treat their employees so poorly. At first I just though that strippers were treated so poorly because the people who tend to own those clubs realize that their workers are there because there was no where else to go. The fact that they did it to cut corners and save money makes a little more sense (though it is still completely unfair). Then again, the fact that waitresses don't get paid minimum wage is also unfair. The hiring of "private contractors" really needs to be better regulated. I know the federal government is trying to regulate it but it really needs to be more regulated. Too many companies think they can treat their employees like crap and get away with it.
This article is very intriguing and raises my concern on those who are called 'independent contractors.' However, I believe that this is happening not just to the strip club dancers. This illegal incidents are frequently happening in other fields of job. This is one of things that everyone in the job knows that it is happening and is injustice, but he/she just ignore because they don't want to be involved, Also, I think that when the dancers were signing the contract, they must have known that, but they might have no other choices other than this job. I have seen so many other incidents where people who must work to support their family but are not eligible to work signed the contract even though they knew they are not gonna be provided workers insurances and other. Therefore, this brings me a great sympathy towards them.However, I never knew that the employers benefit $3710 per person. I hope that in the near future, their employment law changes, so that everyone gets at least the minimum wages and rights that every workers should pursue.
I feel like every few weeks there is an article like this. There are a lot of strip club articles, but I refer to the money part of this. The article cites strip clubs as a specific example but goes on to illustrate that it happens in all sorts of places. Employers gain such a massive benefit from designating their employees as contractors, and so many people do it, that without a big crackdown it seems hard to believe it would stop anytime soon. Working on a case by case basis seems to be the problem here. There will always be another. At the same time, I'm guessing there is a lot of red tape and prosecuting stuff like this takes forever. A sad result of the legal system.
We have spent a lot of time in Production Management Workshop class recently discussing the hiring of designers as independent contractors vs. employees. This article makes it clear that companies can benefit in many ways from hiring people as independent contractors. It's terrible to see that some companies are taking that to the extreme and using the independent contractor loophole as a way to not pay people fairly. I'm thrilled to see more and more examples of action being taken against these employers. Not only should their employees be paid a fair wage, but the government should also be receiving the tax money that those companies rightly owe. I wonder if some of these companies could even keep their doors open if they were taking on their full financial responsibility to their employees and the government. It's sickening to think that the current profits of these businesses are all going into the pockets of their owners, while the women who keep these establishments going are having to pay those business owners without getting paid in return.
I have heard of institutions charging women a "tenant fee" and they walk away with their tips as income, similar to the way that a stylist "rents" his/her chair in a salon, and earns commissions on clients. I'm thrilled that the courts tend to rule on behalf of these women, because not compensating them fairly is disgusting. But on the other hand, it brings to the question why it's acceptable for waiters, bartenders, and servers to make less than minimum wage and only walk out with their tip earnings as compensation? There were definitely days when I left the restaurant and my tips/time ration was less than minimum wage. In the long run, I definitely came out ahead, so I'm not complaining. I'm just observing how there are major discrepancies in labor policy, especially relative to what's culturally acceptable.
As Shannon, said, we've spent a lot of time talking about the differences between employees and independent contractors in our industry and what the benefits and negatives are of each. It's good that the courts are starting to protect strippers and mandating that they are employees since it seems that most courts believe that's what they are. I didn't know that classifying someone as an independent contractor means that they are exempt from the minimum wage law. However, I'd also be interested to know what the strippers preferred. In our industry, a lot of designers prefer being paid as independent contractors since it gives them much more control over their finances and taxes.
10 comments:
That's really mean of those companies to do that, though I'm surprised that people didn't catch it in their contracts when they signed it. If there was something weird like that that I saw, then I would research what it meant and do something about it. The Independent Contractor label probably has some benefits too that they don't know about (could be that they only have to work the shift that they want to, I don't know) but the wage loss is pretty bad.I would only accept that if they gave free housing in exchange for the lack of minimum wage.
Go DC for being ahead of the game!
I think this is another interesting lawsuit against strip clubs, just like the law about exotic dancers not being an art based career. I think the government is really backing themselves into a corner with the inability to define what type of job exotic dancers are. On one side they say they are not artist but the other they also say they have to be paid as minimum wage employees. I think lawsuit like this could be avoid if the government defined what the job is. Part of the just seems like it is in the service industry and therefor should follow those laws. It would seem to make a lot of sense if they got paid like waiters and waitresses.
It is a shame that strip clubs are illegally denying their workers proper pay. To me, just as Nathan and Jenni stated, it would make sense that strippers would be paid in the same fashion that waiters and waitresses get paid. At the same time, however, there are so many waiters and waitresses who are paid well below minimum wage, and are paid very little in tips as well. There are also restaurants that do not allow their wait staff to keep the full amount of the tips they are earning. When this system is applied to strip clubs, it is perhaps more controversial, since strippers are the workers being illegally underpaid. I think that there definitely needs to be some sort of change in regulation and execution of laws dealing with 'Independent Contractors.'
I was surprised how much money companies make when they treat their employees so poorly. At first I just though that strippers were treated so poorly because the people who tend to own those clubs realize that their workers are there because there was no where else to go. The fact that they did it to cut corners and save money makes a little more sense (though it is still completely unfair). Then again, the fact that waitresses don't get paid minimum wage is also unfair. The hiring of "private contractors" really needs to be better regulated. I know the federal government is trying to regulate it but it really needs to be more regulated. Too many companies think they can treat their employees like crap and get away with it.
This article is very intriguing and raises my concern on those who are called 'independent contractors.' However, I believe that this is happening not just to the strip club dancers. This illegal incidents are frequently happening in other fields of job. This is one of things that everyone in the job knows that it is happening and is injustice, but he/she just ignore because they don't want to be involved, Also, I think that when the dancers were signing the contract, they must have known that, but they might have no other choices other than this job. I have seen so many other incidents where people who must work to support their family but are not eligible to work signed the contract even though they knew they are not gonna be provided workers insurances and other. Therefore, this brings me a great sympathy towards them.However, I never knew that the employers benefit $3710 per person. I hope that in the near future, their employment law changes, so that everyone gets at least the minimum wages and rights that every workers should pursue.
I feel like every few weeks there is an article like this. There are a lot of strip club articles, but I refer to the money part of this. The article cites strip clubs as a specific example but goes on to illustrate that it happens in all sorts of places. Employers gain such a massive benefit from designating their employees as contractors, and so many people do it, that without a big crackdown it seems hard to believe it would stop anytime soon. Working on a case by case basis seems to be the problem here. There will always be another. At the same time, I'm guessing there is a lot of red tape and prosecuting stuff like this takes forever. A sad result of the legal system.
We have spent a lot of time in Production Management Workshop class recently discussing the hiring of designers as independent contractors vs. employees. This article makes it clear that companies can benefit in many ways from hiring people as independent contractors. It's terrible to see that some companies are taking that to the extreme and using the independent contractor loophole as a way to not pay people fairly. I'm thrilled to see more and more examples of action being taken against these employers. Not only should their employees be paid a fair wage, but the government should also be receiving the tax money that those companies rightly owe. I wonder if some of these companies could even keep their doors open if they were taking on their full financial responsibility to their employees and the government. It's sickening to think that the current profits of these businesses are all going into the pockets of their owners, while the women who keep these establishments going are having to pay those business owners without getting paid in return.
I have heard of institutions charging women a "tenant fee" and they walk away with their tips as income, similar to the way that a stylist "rents" his/her chair in a salon, and earns commissions on clients. I'm thrilled that the courts tend to rule on behalf of these women, because not compensating them fairly is disgusting. But on the other hand, it brings to the question why it's acceptable for waiters, bartenders, and servers to make less than minimum wage and only walk out with their tip earnings as compensation? There were definitely days when I left the restaurant and my tips/time ration was less than minimum wage. In the long run, I definitely came out ahead, so I'm not complaining. I'm just observing how there are major discrepancies in labor policy, especially relative to what's culturally acceptable.
As Shannon, said, we've spent a lot of time talking about the differences between employees and independent contractors in our industry and what the benefits and negatives are of each. It's good that the courts are starting to protect strippers and mandating that they are employees since it seems that most courts believe that's what they are. I didn't know that classifying someone as an independent contractor means that they are exempt from the minimum wage law. However, I'd also be interested to know what the strippers preferred. In our industry, a lot of designers prefer being paid as independent contractors since it gives them much more control over their finances and taxes.
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