Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
Is it legal for a strip club to call you an independent contractor, monitor your appearance/ behavior ( no glitter/ no gum chewing), and expect a pay out at the end of the night (even if you make less than the pay out?) I'm not asking if this is customary (as I know that it most certainly is >:( !!!) But is it LEGAL?? If so, how do clubs get to call their employees independent contractors without legal consequence?Also, can anyone please suggest resources/ further reading on the subject? I think my club might be in violation. Thank you
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
I mean, the club sets their standard for how they want to come across to their customers, so they set the standards for who works there. I can't imagine that it's legal to monitor anything an independent contractor does, other than whether or not they will let you work there. There's really not much that I've ever found document-wise about what's legal in this industry and I've looked. There needs to be a union or something.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
in my sate, it is not legal. but they all keep doing it, getting sued, and then going back to doing it again. the money they make off treating us like that isn't worth giving up to them just for getting sued every few years. it isn't worth it for the girls to sue either really. although i think its wrong, i don't want to be made an employee and charged even more so i'd rather things stay the way they are.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
It is not legal. Clubs have been miscategorizing their employees as independent contractors for years and years. The class action suits against Penthouse, Christies, etc., have alleged all of the things you mention and many others as reasons for misclassification.
If they tell you that you have to wear gowns but give you no uniform allowance, won't let you dance to rap, control how many shifts you must work, tell you the minimum you have to tip out, etc., you are being controlled in a manner that indicates you are an employee, not an entertainer who "rents" space.
When you work a certain number of hours per week, your employer is required to deduct taxes from your pay, provide you with FMLA and FLSA leave, state workman's comp, and so on. That is why the clubs are settling and will also face big tax repurcussions.
I auditioned at a new club yesterday, and you should have heard this club manager trying to explain the lawsuit to me. He actually told me that the suit stemmed from a girl who got mad because the club took part of her VIP room money and "didn't even wash her underwear for her." Lol. That's not exactly how the suit works.
Look into whether any clubs you have worked for are involved in class actions right now. Some clubs are changing their contracts and how they word their policies.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
Quote:
Originally Posted by
carolina6
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If they tell you that you have to wear gowns but give you no uniform allowance, won't let you dance to rap, control how many shifts you must work, tell you the minimum you have to tip out, etc., you are being controlled in a manner that indicates you are an employee, not an entertainer who "rents" space.
When you work a certain number of hours per week, your employer is required to deduct taxes from your pay, provide you with FMLA and FLSA leave, state workman's comp, and so on. That is why the clubs are settling and will also face big tax repurcussions.
I auditioned at a new club yesterday, and you should have heard this club manager trying to explain the lawsuit to me. He actually told me that the suit stemmed from a girl who got mad because the club took part of her VIP room money and "didn't even wash her underwear for her." Lol. That's not exactly how the suit works.
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Can you explain this a bit more? How does the suit work? Why are they taking our money if we are not really contractors?
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
Clubowners want all of the 'favorable' parts of independent contractor status ... i.e. not having to pay the 'employer's' share of dancer Social Security tax, not having to pay state unemployment and disability insurance premiums on behalf of dancers, not having to provide health care benefits to dancers, being able to charge a house / stage fee, etc. But clubowners also want all of the 'favorable' parts of employee dancer status ... i.e. setting strict work / shift schedules, controlling what dancers wear, controlling dancers stage performances, setting fixed price levels for private dances, etc.
Under the letter of the law, clubowners can have it one way or the other way, but not both ways at the same time. And in the vast majority of court cases, judges have ruled that the 'employer' level of control exerted by clubs regarding set shift schedules, fixed prices for private dances, dress code, limitations on stage performances ( and music ), etc. warrants dancers being treated as 'employees'. This of course kicks in state and federal laws regarding mandatory 'employee' benefits ... such as being paid a tipped minimum wage, having the 'employer' pay 1/2 of dancer Social Security taxes, having the 'employer' pay for state unemployment and disability insurance premiums, such as clubs providing health benefits if dancers work more than 29 hours per week, such as the club NOT being allowed to charge house / stage fees etc. But on the flip side this also kicks in 'employer' rights ... such as clubs keeping up to 100% of dancers private dance / VIP room earnings, such as clubs firing dancers for not maintaining their weight / appearance, such as clubs forcing all dancers to pool their tip money for later division into equal shares per dancer, etc.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
What has always bothered me are when clubs really have strict rules yet you are considered independent. One club that I auditioned for many years ago had strict rules. They told you when you could take breaks, told you you had to work specific days (including requiring you to work either Christmas Eve or Christmas Night), even what you could wear. However you had to pay tipout and if I recall you had to pay a percentage of dance fees plus they penalized you for everything. I decided against working there because of this.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
legal rights for strippers? lol we have none
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
I've never had these issues at my club, thank god. I can take breaks whenever I want, I can work whatever shifts I want, no one has ever told me what I was wearing was inappropriate or that there was something wrong with my appearance. I've never been charged if I did not do dances and if I do less than 5 managers have always worked with me, i.e. not charging a stage fee or something. They do have set dance prices but honestly I don't mind that at all-- if dancers could make their own prices I would have to deal with bargaining with customers, which I refuse to do. There also might be some desperate girls low-balling customers and that would make it harder for me. The fact that they take a portion of my dances is, of course, not fun, but I think that's pretty standard. I just think of it as a rental fee for the space. I've never filled out a 1099 or W2 or anything like that, my club does not report my income.
I tip out a lot but I've never worked at a club in LA that had mandatory tip outs. I mean if you don't tip at any club you aren't going to get perks from the employees-- i.e. telling you when good customers are coming in, letting you skip stage sets, helping you get tips when customers are paying with a credit card-- so I have always tipped well at all the clubs I've worked at, but no one's ever told me "you have to tip x."
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
^^^ personally, I feel the same way. Thus both dancers and clubs arguably benefit from 'independent contractor' status ... even if the clubs throw in a few things that they aren't legally supposed to ( like house fees, fixed dance prices and mandatory tip-outs ).
One thing about 'employee' dancer status is for certain ... it means new 'costs' for the club - - disability and unemployment insurance premiums to the state - much higher accounting and payroll processing services costs - that wind up 'diverting' the same number of customer dollars to places other than the clubs and dancers' pockets.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
I work as a Film Extra for movies, tv and advertizing and the business model in that industry is very similar to the one used by strip clubs. Some companies pay the talent like employees and other treat talent as IC's. All the companies require a fee-for-work model, usually a percentage of your wages or a fixed registration fee. Movie extras are required to follow a lot of rules, including providing your own costumes.
The entertainment industry just operates differently than other business models. It has to, to allow for audience desires. I'd love to be able to go into work at 7am and home at 3pm, but most clubs simply aren't open during those hours because there are no customers.
I would agree that some clubs are a rip off. But you'll also find that in the paycheck-job world as well. I have a friend who worked for Quizno's. Her paycheck was always late. She was asked to work off the clock on a near daily basis, sometimes for several hours a day. Eventually, the store closed w/o any of the employees getting their final pay and she had to go through the state to make a claim for back wages through the bankruptcy court that was handling the closure of her workplace.
I'm pretty happy with the current model most strip clubs use for their dancers. If the clubs offered a paycheck to the dancers, they would be required to hit sales goals, would only be allowed to keep a small amount of their lap dance money (like 20-50%), and would have to adhere to a schedule set by someone else. The management could force dancers to perform lap dances for the customers and would require that the dancers put up with all manner of abuse during the dances and/or get fired if the customer misbehaves.
No thanks.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
^^^Agree, the reason I'm a dancer is because I like being able to say "fuck you" to a customer and keep my $750 cold, hard cash, set my own schedule and work anywhere I want. If the manager is rude to me, no tip for them, I will walk the fuck right out of those doors if need be without worry about finding a job. I love that I am a contractor and not an employee. Fuck that noise.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
Thank you everyone for the advice and insight! These are all really good p
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
There are a lot of benefits to us by them not following the law. There are a lot of drawbacks too. I don't have to pay 250 or more in taxes if I have a 1,000 night, (though I should) but I have no employer provided health insurance. I don't have to worry about getting fired if I want to take a 3 week vacation, but if I break my arm on stage I could be out of work for months without pay (I have seen this happen to girls). A lot of dancers don't have it together enough to pay for the health insurance and save enough to live off in case of an accident. Do those things and the clubs' illegality will benefit you more in the long run (I think).
Different clubs and franchises follow different rules, depending on whether they have been sued or not. I have worked at a club where they made us pay a 1 dollar "legal" fee every shift. Yet no attorney would be hired for us if we got a ticket. It was just a smooth way of charging an extra dollar for house fee. I have worked at clubs that had no house fee before a certain hour and you could wear a thong when walking around, and those where you had to wear a gown, would get taken off stage rotation if you got fat, and the minimum house fee on Wednesday was 50. It's truly a "free market" except for where liquor control or vice get involved.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
As for the lawsuits, they are class actions. This means you have a "representative class" of named plaintiffs. So the attorneys find 10 or 20 girls who worked for a certain club or chain. Then they allege violations of the law that happened to those plaintiffs but represent everyone else as well. So even though you don't know the suit is happening, if you worked at Penthouse during whatever years the case covers, then that suit covers your right to sue. The attorneys are required to try to reach as many girls who worked in the club as possible, posting on message boards, posting signs in dressing rooms, etc. If you find out a club you used to work at is being sued in a class action, you can opt out, which allows you to sue on your own if you want. If you don't opt out, whatever settlement or judgment that comes from the case is all you will be entitled to. It will be a small amount. Class actions are a slap on the wrist to clubs in terms of the benefits they have reaped. It is primarily a tool for attorneys to collect large fees.
Most of the claims in strip club class actions are for violations of state and federal labor laws pertaining to sick leave, breaks, overtime, and minimum wage. There are other allegations having to do with uniform allowances, tip outs, room fees, and so on. Once the suits are settled you can't sue again, so if you worked at some club for 10 years and have a good claim on your own, you might want to get your own lawyer and opt out of any suit against that club.
Re: Legal Rights For Adult Entertainers
^^^ actually, spam being posted from Germany reminded me of one of the very 'unexpected' risks of a gov't declaring exotic dancers / prostitutes to be legal 'employees' ... from
(snip)"A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit"(snip)
In point of fact, the 'hue and cry' resulting from this incident ... that the state unemployment system could essentially 'force' long term unemployed German girls to accept jobs as 'strippers' and prostitutes or lose their unemployment benefit checks ... forced the German gov't to take specific legislative action that exempted 'sex workers' from the unemployment system ... thus also excluded 'sex workers' from receiving unemployment benefits, as well as excluding strip club / brothel owners from having to pay into the gov't unemployment system !!!
The take-away from this German incident is that dancers shouldn't automatically assume that they will actually receive all of the 'good' parts of being employees, even though they will become subject to all of the 'bad' parts of being employees !
'Equal treatment under the law' doesn't really sit too well when it means that the daughter of a straight-laced suburban family must potentially face the choice of accepting a job as an employee 'stripper' or lose her unemployment checks. It doesn't sit too well when strip clubs set up recruiting booths at high school 'job fairs' trying to attract new 'talent' ( which has already happened in the USA and raised a 'hue and cry' of its own ), etc. Regardless of the 'theoreticals', when it comes right down to it, average Germans, Americans, etc. will never accept 100% 'equal treatment' for 'sex workers' despite such work being both legal and subject to gov't 'employee' mandates.