(and hope I'm posting this in the right spot), but...if we're technically independent contractors, then why do we have to be on a schedule??
Again, sorry if this is a stupid question, I just really don't know and would like to know.
Thanks!
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(and hope I'm posting this in the right spot), but...if we're technically independent contractors, then why do we have to be on a schedule??
Again, sorry if this is a stupid question, I just really don't know and would like to know.
Thanks!
Here's the funny thing about Sugar Shack.... they don't follow the rules. I'm not sure what the laws are on Ind. Contractors but know that she doesn't abide by them. Fining us isn't even legal I don't think. Her motto: If you don't like it, there's the door... GRRRRRR...
Because you are still working for a company.
For example, my fiance is an independent contractor as a carpenter. He gets paid as a contractor and not as an employee, i.e. he gets a 1099 at the end of the year and his taxes are all on him. He still works for another guy though and reports to him and shows up to work when he is told (mostly 9-5, mon - fri).
Does that help at all?
Okay, so the company doesn't pay him an hourly.
Whatever job he does, he gets paid for by whoever hired him? Not by the company?
The company is just a place where he goes to help get him jobs?
Like stripping?? The club is the place we go/use to help make us money??
Sorry, I suck when it comes to taxes and law stuff LOL
Hm I guess it's a lot different because he does get paid hourly. But he only works for/with one guy (Dan). So Dan actually pays him $25/hr and Dan sets him up with work. I guess Jay (my fiance) is more like an employee because he does get an hourly wage and has specific hours....well at least a starting time and he leaves either after 8 hours or when they job is finished.
I honestly never gave it much thought so bear with me LOL.
As far as taxes, Dan will give him a 1099 at the end of the year. I just looked up 1099 and this is what I found:
"In the world of income and taxation, corporations, small businesses, and other employers use a variety of forms to record the income earned by an employee or an independent contractor. Typically, employees of a business receive a W-2 form that lists the income they received during the year. This form also contains deductions taken from that income in the form of federal and state taxes, deferred compensation and social security contributions, to name a few. 1099 forms are used for a number of reasons, though, typically, they are given to independent contractors--also known as "freelancers"--as a record of the income they received from a particular business."
So he is responsible for keeping track of his own taxes, where I, as an employee, receive a W-2 form and my workplace and I pay taxes out of every paycheck. He must pay a lump sum before the April 15th deadline or make payment plans with the IRS.
My thinking is that "independent contractor" and "employee" titles are pretty interchangable when it comes to scheduling and work being performed. The difference is mostly in how taxes are being collected and how you get paid. Here is an article from the IRS:
After all that, I'm still not sure if I answered your question lol but I tried. I am a legal secretary soon to be moonlighting as a stripper.
And Avery, you did not sign that schedule!!!! You have a loop hole there !! Just talk to Micheal... even if you don't want to come back right away, don't burn bridges yet :)
You may find this link helpful:
I'm definitely going to talk to him.
I was kinda just relived at first to have a reason to no longer dance, but now, I did fuck up my job too.
Who knows how long it will take to find something else. I wish he was going to be there Sunday so I could talk to him. I'll just have to find a time to call.
I used to work in Chicago before Vegas and wondered why that was, all the time. So one day I asked the owner of one of the clubs. He said it was because no one would show up if they didn't. I mean of coarse girls would show up but how many? A reason they don't have schedules in Vegas is because they are so many girls. So how many girls will show up a night...a shitload! In Chicago there were all the same girls working there so no flush of new people flying in for the weekend, lets say. So you have 200 girls working total (in the whole club overall) and maybe 75 for the night. Without schedules how many of the 75 will show up and if they do then at what time? I hope that made sense :)
I do think it's a good idea so not all girls are working at once, just sucks to get fined when you don't show up. :(
Even Vegas was like that in a way. There were day shift, swing shift, and graveyard girls.....so I guess that is scheduling in a way. :)
(We just never had set days to work.) :P
The club I work at makes the new girls (the ones who've been there less than a year) fill out a schedule. Mostly because they make $$ from fining them. The new girls also have to do mandatory shifts...to fill in for some of the slower days like sat dayshift. I dont get how we can have too many girls, and some people still get fined for not showing up... it's B.S. I dont really get how they can fine you when you pay them to work there not the other way around. It's just one of those things management uses to get money out of the girls even though it is completely illegal. If we were truely independent contractors, we would be handed a reciept for every portion of our lap dance money we forked over and for every house fee we paid. Its kinda right up there with not being offered insurance...
@Avery... Your totally right it is bogus. I completely agree with you. In Chicago it was $300 on a weeknight, $400 on a weekend. Everytime I would think about missing work, I'd think well is it worth 300/400 dollars. WTF!!! And your right about Vegas. I've found really only Rhino hold up to the shifts. If your worked here for a while you can get past the shifts and work when you want. Can you not put a schedule in if you have a second/day job? Some girls in Chicago got around the whole scheduling thing by using that as a reason for not being sure when exactly they could work.
Luckily, my husband is the main provider so I would always go around his schedule. However, new girls were required to work at least a Sunday and/or Monday. Which was fine....Just sucked at first not being able have a day off with my husband. Also had to work 3 days a week at least, which again, was fine. Just the lack of time with the hubby sucked. :(
Last time I was there I just kinda said I'd work, but some things came up and I wasn't comfortable working. Couldn't call because I don't get phone reception where I live.
I don't think it would have mattered anyway though since girls have called in before and they still made them pay. $100 fine. :/
this is something of a rant for me. they call us IC's but if you lookat the law, most of us could make very good arguments for being employees.
the problem is most dancers dont want the hassles that go with being called employees, so they put up with the middle ground where the exert more control over us than they should as IC's but we dont have to deal with being full "employees"
^^ Your points correlate well with previous posts I've read here.
I've never understood why some are considered IC's though there are rules. I remember getting mad because one club wanted me to work 5 shifts. One club I worked at fined you for being late, for not being far enough from a customer and even costumes. One club (never worked there) told the dancers when they were to work, and when they could take breaks. I've never thought this was right.
If the Sugar Shack is still owned by who it was before she's just as bad as a man. Years ago I auditioned at the other Sugar Shack (now Scores I think) and she was so disorganized. The amateur night didn't start for over an hour. She told me that I was too fat, even though I was thinner than many of the girls there at the time (I had slimmed down to 110 pounds and a size 2/4). She was pretty brutal to me and Flakey told me (I brought him for support) that if she was that bad then, imagine how she'd be if I got hired. Ironically when I was leaving I saw several dancers I worked with down the street and they were all stunned she rejected me.
Yes it is still owned by her and probably will be until she's dead. I have worked for her for 8 years now and she still calls me Melissa, my name is Melina. She's a big woman herself and for her to call anyone fat is just ridiculous. She does so many illegal things. Last year we didn't have heat until the end of November. We were all bundled in our winter jackets onstage and shit, how classy huh?! She fines us (but every club does that??) there are other things I'm just blanking right now. But yeah small world. It was called Dreamers before it went to Scores, btw :)
Yes she is a big woman. In fact Flakey (that's the one I talk about) said he couldn't figure out why she called me names when she is a huge woman. To be honest I really didn't care for her and I have a feeling I wouldn't get along with her anyway. I think that old Sugar Shack was also Thee Dollhouse and another name before Dreamers and Scores (I could be wrong though). I used to dance down the street at another club and several girls fled to the then Sugar Shack because they heard it was better.
Actually, many of the things clubs do are not legal. Technically, independent contractors (since they charge a fee for dancers to use the premises) cannot be forced to be on a schedule, fined for being "late," forced to meet drink quotas and sell other bullshit promo items. The thing is, dancers are basically powerless. If one complains, there is an endless supply of other girls ready to take one's place. And until dancing is recognized as a legitimate job (which it is!), I don't see anything changing. Government officials and workplace psychologists are not exactly lining up to see that dancers are treated fairly...
Unionization would perhaps be the only way to stop this... but that comes with it's own load of sticky implications.
Pretty much the way it is, sad to say.
And the women aren't necessarily any better than the men at running a club fairly, as the scenario posted above illustrates.
Simple answer is that it is likely most dancers would qualify as an employee under the letter of the law.
Problem is, do you want to fight that fight? While you would most likely win, what would it get you?
It would be expensive for both you and the Club. I'm sure they wouldnt be very happy about it. I imagine you could kiss your desired shifts goodbye and I imagine they would start putting together a 'file' on you so they could fire you for cause as soon as possible.
Or, as soon as they find out that you are fighting your employment status....they would just fire you, because you are still an IC in their eyes.
So, you are right.....but it would probably be best for YOU to just continue as an IC anyway.
strip clubs don't really follow a lot of rules.
in my club's case, the managers call the shots and the dancers know it. whatever happens in the club stays in the club and if you try to do anything about it (report them to a higher authority or sue them) they'll just deny you work there.