WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
Though I am a newbie, from what I understand, it use to be the norm for CLUBS to PAY the ENTERTAINERS rather than the other way around!
I also have heard of some scattered clubs still offering this, but it is rare.
How much do you pay per hour for your shift to work?
For example, if you had mandatory fees for
dj 10, house mom 10, house/stage fee 80....additional tips expected or optional, but not required. so it comes out to 100, say for a 8 hour shift. so your paying at least $12.50, every hour that you work! plus additional tips and % of what you make depending on the night.
...if you were payed 12.50 instead per hour, you would autimatically be up $25/hour Guarenteed, every single hour you work!
IF things were appropriate and the other way around, then the employer, the clubs, would be paying the employee, the dancers.
Why do we accept not getting payed to work???
We are not even working for free, we are PAYING to WORK!?!?!?!?!?
WHY???
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
... for the same reason that hair stylists pay salons to work ... for the same reason that artists / craftsmen pay a flea market / renaissance fair pay to work etc.
Yes the independent 'artist' supplies the talent to hold customer attention, and also supplies a product or service that customers buy. But the club / salon / renaissance fair provides the place of business as well as the 'public presence' which attracts customers and the physical facilities / financial arrangements / security arrangements which make secure business transactions possible. This requires hundreds of thousands (or in some cases millions) of dollars worth of investment. This also requires official 'merchant' status with commercial banks / credit card companies, not to mention business licenses, insurance and a host of other necessary evils.
It's certainly possible for dancers to work outside of a club ... but this generally means having to perform all business transactions in cash, paying for your own security (or winging it without security), and accepting the additional financial and physical risks.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
I'd say we work on commission.
By the logic that we don't get paid to work, neither does a Sears full-line employee. You get a chunck out of every item you sell (in our case, dances, room rentals, etc) as your payment. So, pretty much, you're not getting paid to be there, but you're being paid for the work you do.
As far as the tip-outs, well, the DJ and the bouncers should be paid for the work they do, too. Since they have nothing to make commission on, they do get an hourly. As far as the mandatory tips go, if you din't have a good day, they still did work for you and there could have been a girl in your place who had a better hustle and could tip them well, even more than the expected tip Generally, in my experience, they walk with less than or about as much as the dancers do including their hourly wage, before taxes.
Anyway, the stage fee, the way I see it, is a rental of space on the roster. There could be a girl working that isn't because you're there, and she could have made the club more money than you did and put on a better stage than you did, etc. Just like Melonie said, it's like renting out a booth at a craft fair.
Also, I'm not very sure on this, but I think in the days that strippers were paid to perform, lapdancing was not fully integrated into clubs. Dancers made their money though hourly wages and by tips, and clubs made their money directly from the customers (cover charges, drinks, etc).
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
There has been a change in mentality over hired labor in the US over the last 20 years or so. Many professions prefer to use contractors, not just strip clubs but even jobs you would think would be required to treat their people as employees, like catering businesses, hotel housekeeping staff (paying by piecework), insurance processing, book keeping/ accounting amongst others.
One of the biggest industries to favor licensed contractors instead of employees is in housing construction. You've got a general contractor who is basically in charge in locating and contracting subs for the various tasks in house building. No one on the job has a "boss" per se. Most sub contractors are one person operations or are family members working together. Today, this is really bad because you have whole families falling apart financially because there is no unemployment benefits for independent contractors. When the whole family goes out of business, and there is no social safety net and the results are extremely destructive.
All the independent contractors in the work force today is part of the cause of the health care crisis, as well. Up until about 10 years ago, it was next to impossible to buy to health insurance as an individual. If you could find it, the coverage was extremely expensive and only covered catastrophic situations. This is because there was really no reason to buy insurance as an individual because employers provided part or most of a person's health insurance. When I worked at a retail clothing store in the 90's, everyone who worked 30+ hours a week got insurance. Ditto for most low wage jobs of the time. Not anymore.
My, what a mess we have gotten ourselves into.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
I prefer being an independent contractor because I get the tax benefits of being a business owner.
If I were an employee of the strip club, then much like a waitress: I would be payed a wage, and all the monies I received for my services (i.e. lapdances) would be property of the club. I actually worked at a club that gave the option of being either an employee or an independent contractor
The employee option paid $8/hour, and all the lapdance money had to be turned into the club. You could keep your tips, but ALL lapdance money belonged to the club, out of which they paid you $8/hour.
The contractor option was the typical pay house fee set up.
Needless to say, no one chose the employee option.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
We accept it because even without hourly pay from clubs we can (more often than not) walk in and make much more as contractors than we can in any other low-skill job environment. I deem it low-skill because you do not need any formal education to become a stripper...zero certification, etc...
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
I've worked in both paid clubs and clubs where the dancer pays. While getting paid sounds great, especially when you have a bad night, it's not that great. Most of the clubs I got paid at took a majority of dance fees. Case in point, one club charged around $200 an hour for a champagne room. This was in 1996 and obviously the fee has gone up. Out of that $200 I think the dancer only got $20 or so dollars. Same thing with regular dances. These were $10 (topless) and I think the dancer only got $4 or so. Plus at two of these clubs you were pressured to get guys to buy you overpriced drinks, and the dancer fee from the drinks was low. I didn't make much money at these clubs and quit soon after. I suspect most of the dancers were hookers too and likely offered more in the rooms.
I did get paid to dance at a few other clubs, but these were new clubs that desperately needed dancers and brought girls in and paid them. I didn't have to share my money with these clubs.
I prefer paying because the money is generally better. Someone I worked with used to say paying to dance is good for those who hustle (Like me), whereas clubs that pay you are good for those girls who spend all night in the dressing room.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
You do NOT want to be on a payroll. They will take cuts from your tips and you will make less. I would never want to change the system up or work at a club with payroll. We make WAY more money this way than we would if we let them control our pay. I control what I make each night, I wouldn't want it any other way.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
we get paid to do our stage shows, and they take a cut out of our private dances, but the tips are all ours.
Cos we get paid to do the stages they can tell us what to do (employees for that part) so we have to do a nude strip for 2 songs (5-6 minutes) and get paid $17, but we also can get tips from the custies.
It means that you end up getting a few hundred dollars a week as a pay cheque, which you can use to say that you just work bar/dj/waitress rather than as a stripper.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
No offense, but how would you pay the girls? Would you do a flat fee? Not to be offensive, but I honestly don't think that every girl who works at the clubs that I work at deserve the same amount.
The bouncers and house moms and djs at my clubs work only off tips. And even they're paying out. The dj has to pay half of everything for his rental fee. I can't really complain about my tip out.
And there are perks to being self-employed. Being able to write off alot of your maintenance fees is really helpful. As an employee you can't write off clothes, make-up, hair, etc. And that really adds up.
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
Re: WHY do we accept NOT being PAYED to WORK?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jasmine369
Though I am a newbie, from what I understand, it use to be the norm for CLUBS to PAY the ENTERTAINERS rather than the other way around!
I also have heard of some scattered clubs still offering this, but it is rare.
How much do you pay per hour for your shift to work?
For example, if you had mandatory fees for
dj 10, house mom 10, house/stage fee 80....additional tips expected or optional, but not required. so it comes out to 100, say for a 8 hour shift. so your paying at least $12.50, every hour that you work! plus additional tips and % of what you make depending on the night.
...if you were payed 12.50 instead per hour, you would autimatically be up $25/hour Guarenteed, every single hour you work!
IF things were appropriate and the other way around, then the employer, the clubs, would be paying the employee, the dancers.
Why do we accept not getting payed to work???
We are not even working for free, we are PAYING to WORK!?!?!?!?!?
WHY???
because thats the way it is..
Its like paying for security and rent..
plus we make our own sched. pretty much come and go as we please..
and most of the time we make plenty of money