So I fact checked this thing and it checks out, and it’s incredibly INCREDIBLY important, because many clubs use illegal labor practices like charging dancers t work, misclassifying them as independent contractors, demanding a portion of the dancer’s tips, or failing to pay them at the bare minimum minimum wage.
So exotic dancers of tumblr, you need to read this, it is incredibly important and then something needs to be done. File a complaint, file a suit over wage theft, unionize, because they are doing SO MUCH ILLEGAL SHIT.
Please spread this like fucking wildfire.
I see what you are trying to say here but it is extremely ignorant. As a stripper myself I absolutely prefer to be an independent contractor. With the employee title comes schedules, lack of anonymity, and a level of control by my employer that makes me very uncomfortable. I left civillian work to avoid those things. There are downsides to being an independent contractor but I’ll take them over being considered an employee any day. What about traveling dancers who only stay at any certain club for a weekend. Employee status is not beneficial for me as a stripper. The fact that this is being reblogged by civillians who don’t know what strippers want or how our industry works is very disconcerting and worrisome.
I’m an ex stripper, at the club I worked in they already had schedules, our full legal names and a lot of rules about what we could and couldn’t wear. Obviously travelling/feature dancing is different. I do think that there should probably be another legal status that allows for the independance of stripping but also acknowledges that house dancers are not the same as say a graphic designer, and should have benefits and so on.
Not to mention that stage fees and having to “tip out” still fall heavily under “pay to work”. We’re not independant businesses, not even to the extent someone renting a station in a hair salon is.
I respectfully disagree. It is unfortunate that your previous clubs impeded on your IC status so heavily (being honest here, all clubs do a bit) but I have to say that you are the first girl I’ve come across who actually wants to go the employment route with the issue. Even if the club payed you a paycheck (I’m assuming this would function similar to other tip based work i.e. waiting tables) those checks would end up mostly going to taxes. In my club, which is not the most respectful of our IC status, they have a voluntary schedule, no record of my real name or other personal info excepting my dancer licence with the state, and only ensure that we cover what needs to be covered as we are not a full nude club. I would rather keep paying to work (rent the stage and other facilities) and keep the freedoms that I have than tether myself as an employee.
The places where there have been lawsuits, from what I’ve heard, everything has gotten bad for everyone. Find a club that treats their employees well. If all of the best dancers end up at the clubs that treat them well, those clubs will flourish.
@clarawebbwillcutoffyourhead I believe has some info, a lot of those stories are scare tactics by owners, but also I think one needs strong worker organization in the club because if the boss is at risk of having no dancers come in if they don’t fall in line
It’s actually very rare for a club to be treating their dancers like independent contractors, that’s why every case that’s gone to court so far, the dancers have won.
I understand there’s a lot that seems scary about employee status, but @thepeacockangel is right that most of it is scare tactics by club owners. For example, the Deja vu contracts that ask you to “choose” whether you sign on as an employee or contractor and then say that as an employee you would have to give them your dance money, tips, and the first $200 you make, only to make minimum wage, are absolutely illegal. None of that has anything to do with employee status.
Employee status doesn’t show up on any background check.
Clubs can’t touch your dance money or your tips (and if they do, you can sue) as an employee.
The fact is, contractors only have the rights and protections outlined in the contract. Any dancer working as a contractor should have been able to individually negotiate her contract to her preferred specifications, with no restraint on when she works, for how long, where she does her job, and with a limited and specific amount paid for a stage rental fee.
But contractors still have no protections against discrimination, being fired for not sleeping with an owner, not wanting to be groped by bouncers, staff, or customers, injury on the job, paid sick leave, or anything else. And if the owner is shady about taxes, contractors are more likely to come under scrutiny.
The fact is, most dancers are employees.
Employee status isn’t perfect–even people who are in really respectable positions get abused and treated badly by some employers.
But employee status is the only position that offers any protection against most of the abuses that happen in a strip club, including the protection to protest against these abuses.
I support people who want to be contractors, but I want them to know the actual difference, I want them to have actual individually negotiated contracts that actually benefit them.
I don’t support people saying that the status quo is legitimate, because it isn’t, and it offers way too much room for abuse that way too many club owners take advantage of.
We need change.
Anna sent me this correction about Deja Vu contracts:
I can’t tell if that reblog where you mentioned DejaVu contracts is current or something older, but it wasn’t just that they took your first $200 as an employee, they took ALL of the employees’ lap dance money and we would be required to do at least 10 dances a shift. But of course who would bother to do more than the 10 required if we weren’t gonna get the money anyway. And the pay was $12-15 DOE at the time I was there. Tips were for the dancer to keep though, but we barely made any tips in SF. Most of mine went straight to tip outs. The first $200 thing was the independent contractor situation, the stage fees.
I cannot emphasize enough the fact that this is ILLEGAL. It doesn’t stand up in court.
Dancers are found to be employees NOW. That means that the way we are being treated NOW is as employees–when people say “but I like how things are now” what you’re saying is “I like employee status.”
The only thing clubs need to change to follow the law wrt employee status is to stop charging dancers to work, stop taking cuts of our money, stop sexually harassing and assaulting us, stop racist hiring practices.We are employees currently. Clubs doing what Deja Vu does in their contract is illegal and the only reason they get away with it is the dancers who fought for employee protections are too damn tired to keep fighting after a certain point. We can’t be the only ones.
IC status doesn’t look like strip clubs in 2016. A feature dancer–she might be an IC.
But the main feature of employee status is: can a business function without the workers in question?
And what is a strip club without strippers?
So I have to repeat:
Employee status isn’t perfect–even people who are in really respectable positions get abused and treated badly by some employers.
But employee status is the only position that offers any protection against most of the abuses that happen in a strip club, including the protection to protest against these abuses.
I support people who want to be contractors, but I want them to know the actual difference, I want them to have actual individually negotiated contracts that actually benefit them.
I don’t support people saying that the status quo is legitimate, because it isn’t, and it offers way too much room for abuse that way too many club owners take advantage of.
We need change.
This shit is important
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 