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
I speak to dancers, features, and DJs from around the country. In some places, once you become an employee they collect ALL of your tips, calculate the taxes for you, and give you a paycheck. It also means that they can schedule you, rather than you making your own schedule-no deciding you want to pick up a shift because you’re broke. There was a great podcast talking to an owner who changed over…
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/panda-radio-podcast/id953681604?mt=2&i=360417980
They actually prefer it. However, most of the big chain clubs at the moment have basically no rules because they’re terrified of being sued. Also, I really don’t think that lawsuits and bad publicity are helping the industry at this point.
That’s actually also illegal, have a look at this http://clarawebbwillcutoffyourhead.tumblr.com/post/138608474884/stripper-labor-rights-101
In order to avoid lawsuits my club gives every girl an option- be an independent contractor with no schedule, no mandatory tip outs, and a lot less rules, or be an employee making minimum wage and with the opportunity for workmans comp if we get hurt but get fired if you no call no show or are late too often and they collect all of your tips. 99% of us choose to be contractors. It’s just easier that way and most of us prefer it.
Yes, strip clubs really blur the lines on IC/employees. But forcing them to make us employees and suing them won’t help us too much I don’t think.
^^^ at my club we can choose to be an IC or an employee and we’d have to give them all of our tip money, they’d choose out outfits for us and tell us who to talk to.
it’s a broken system, but it’s better than being an employee under that direction. most sws don’t want to have a boss outde of themselves because it’s an extremely personal job. i’ll personally take the industry as it is over being an employee stripper any day. it could be improved, but i don’t have the time or the money to hire a lawyer.
Have you considered unionizing? Direct action gets satisfaction faster and cheaper than through courts
nope 🙂
Why does this person care…. 🙄
I don’t have the time, energy, money or give a fuck to try and change an industry that runs exactly the way I need it to just because it’s a little unfair to me sometimes. I will pay out the ass to work the way I do because it benefits my mental, emotional and physical health. Plus, I make bank. Why would I care about unionizing.
I just can’t fathom not wanting to get/keep more bank, plus security in case you’re injured, plus being able to have more say in the way your workplace is run, I mean if you’re happy great, but like money’s money and we could all use more of it.
@thepeacockangel No, we DO want that, but clubs and lawmakers don’t. that’s the point. Clubs want to pay us and take ALL of our tips, schedule us, tell us what to wear and who to talk to and when we can or can’t leave or show up. It’s not realistic for them to pay us/ have us as employees and give us benefits that THEY pay for out of pocket and keep us as an IC. Do you see how non-beneficial it is for clubs to have a transient stripper working there?? They’d never know if you’d show up. They’d be paying 200+ girls benefits who show up 2 or 3 times a month. If that. And I’m not willing to work w a schedule. I will pay a fine every day I miss as long as I don’t have a fucking schedule because I have a mental illness that keeps me from working every single day. That’s why I’m a sex worker, so I don’t HAVE to work on someone elses’ dime.
@thepeacockangel what I’m saying is, it’s more realistic to be a stripper and pay for your own benefits/ have a day job than it is to try and change an industry that benefits more people than it harms currently. I do multiple forms of SW to survive and many, many other people do to. It works the way it does because it benefits more people – clubs and dancers included – to do so, and while it sounds unfair from the outside, it really isn’t as unfair as it seems to be because it works more than it hinders.
I also do multiple forms, and I do absolutely believe doing sex work is more helpful than harmful, but I just feel like if we get together and have each other’s backs we can end up with more and with more control of our work. My real dream is to see more SW collectives, where we get to have the conditions we choose and keep all our profit, and I don’t think it’s a pipe dream, we’re smart, we know how to hustle and we end up learning a fair bit about the back end of the industry while working… so like I think those could become realities, but I also really don’t deal well with feeling powerless when something at work bugs me (like the percentage the cam service I work through takes is very high and unreasonable, but I’ve got bills to pay)
Girl I agree, I absolutely agree and I want what you want to happen, but in this time here and now, taking days off of work to protest things risks our livelihoods. 80% of the girls I work w have children. They cannot risk taking multiple days off of work to protest. Maybe when/ if the economy changes, but for millennials and people who are young and working to survive/ provide for themselves and families today, 99% of us cannot risk losing what we have worked so hard for at this point in time. I don’t think it’s a pipe dream further on down the line of time, but most of us need to have some kind of cushion to fall back on until the laws can be changed/ unions can be formed (which could take months, if not years). I’d love for that to happen, but for most people it’s simply not a realistic option. And for most girls, why fix a system that’s broken to fall into more uncertainty and certain financial loss by protesting? Who knows if all the girls will join up anyways? My point is, industry reform isn’t on every girls agenda, and it will take more people like you who are young and conscious before that becomes a reality.
Yeah, like protesting before it’s a good time is a terrible terrible idea. I’d never advocate something like that. What we need to do for now is keep on working, and keep on talking to each other, make social contacts with each other, be there for eachother. The ideal is to quietly build power and solidarity by just getting together and talking, not alerting management, not endangering what we have until we’ve built up a cushion, and gotten people together and probably even saved up a strike fund to fall back on should it be necessary, and that’s a long term project, and not at all something to rush into. I’m in no way advocating immediate protest action, that would harm people and not do any good. Like labor organizing is a slow process most of which is done behind the scenes (it’s months of building relationships and trust and then coming up with a cohesive program for what you collectively want and then gathering resources so that you’re able to carry out whatever actions are needed, so saving and collecting strike funds, finding legal aid, my union has a department for that, I’m in the IWW’s sex workers union) and just building solidarity and mutual aid with your coworkers, and even just that (which doesn’t usually piss off management, cause A: They don’t know and B: what do they care if you do things like childcare for each other) can make a huge difference in our lives, cause like knowing the girl who knows what to do when a pipe bursts in your basement or being there for the girl who needs someone to pet sit or whatever, that shit means a lot.
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 