Re: Class Action Lawsuits
I was involved in a class action suit against a Manhattan club a few years ago ... although I was no longer actively working at that club by the time the suit was filed.
The vast majority of such lawsuits are 'settled' before any judge's ruling needs to be made. Thus the probable outcomes are somewhat predictable these days. One prediction is that, as a term of the settlement, the club must start treating dancers as 'employees'. This of course kicks in all sorts of existing laws covering employee 'rights' and employer mandates ...
On the PLUS side ...
- the club must start paying dancers tipped minimum wage ... which in Florida is $4.91 per hour.
- 'mediocre' dancers who don't sell a lot of private dances / VIP's are likely to wind up earning more money ( due to the tipped minimum wage payments ).
- the club must provide FULL TIME dancers with employee benefits, such as health care, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, etc.
- the club must abide by federal and state laws covering employee 'rights' and 'protections' ... and dancers can bring DOL cases or lawsuits if their 'rights' and 'protections' are violated ( including being fired because they participated in a lawsuit brought against the club ).
- the club must pay a 6.75% 'employer's share' of Social Security tax ( thus dropping the percentage which must be paid by the dancer from 15.3% to 6.75% )
On the MINUS side ...
- the club becomes the 'owner' of the work product of employee dancers ... which means that the club could legally keep 100% of customer money spent on private dances / VIP's etc. if it wanted to ... which also means that the club can force dancers to perform private dances / VIP's for ANY customer without additional payment. Typically the club pays out 50% ( or whatever ) of the amount the customer spent as a 'sales commission' to the dancer. The other 50% ( or whatever ) kept by the club is used to pay the tipped minimum wage, the payroll service, the employer's share of SSI tax etc.
- the club must process dancer payouts via the club's payroll system ... with income fully reported and with taxes withheld.
- technically speaking, every dollar of dancer earnings is supposed to be reported and routed through the club's payroll system ... including private dance / VIP money, including stage tips, etc. In practice, private dance / VIP money is fully reported ( since the club takes a hefty cut ), but stage tip money usually is not.
- the club is NOT required to provide benefits for PART TIME dancers ... meaning that the club has strong motivation to limit the maximum hours a dancer can work to 28 hours in a given week.
- the club must thoroughly document dancers' work history / reasons for any decision made to fire a dancer ... which usually means that clubs will turn a 'blind eye' toward extras, drugs etc. ( because they don't want to create an official record that such things took place in their club )
- as 'employees', dancers are no longer able to deduct many types of expenses from their taxable income ... which effectively increases their tax rate.
- 'top shelf' dancers who sell lots of private dances and VIP's are likely to wind up earning significantly less money ( due to the club now keeping 50% of their private dance / VIP sales ).
Re: Class Action Lawsuits
I am participating in a suit against my old club. They usually take a while to go through, so I am just periodically texting my attorney to ask about the case. If you are still working at the club and the suit is taking place, act really dumb or drunk or blonde when it's mentioned or they will assume you are part of the suit and you'll get fired. It's best to just go to a better club because it seems like these suits usually get brought up on 1) tiny dives where there may literally not be money in the place all day or 2) Huge extras clubs/brothels where the "top girls" really run the club.
With #1- why stay at a dive anyway and go through the drama of pissing off the mobsters who probably run the place?
With #2-This is a very dangerous environment to work in (it's like the one I was at that's getting sued) and they will NOT hire you back once they fire you, and they will fire you once they realize you aren't making them the kinda $$ they want because they then see you as a "liability."