
Originally Posted by
Melonie
Indeed - and probably for more reasons than you have thought of. Under the ACA, 'employer' clubowners will be required to provide health insurance coverage to all 'employee' dancers who are considered to be full-time employees i.e. working 30 or more hours per week. To avoid this new cost, employer clubowners are likely to follow in the footsteps of major retailers, restaurants etc. and limit individual employee dancers to a maximum of 28 hours per week. This is likely to not only limit employee dancer income potentials via reduced hours ( i.e. only being allowed to work 3 shifts per week ), but is likely to also lead to major conflicts i.e. the DOL 'fairness' of the club allowing one dancer to work Friday, Saturday and one other shift per week, while forcing another dancer to only work weekdays. Remember as employees the DOL can enforce 'equal treatment' ... potentially leading to a rigid club schedule which allows employee dancers to work a Friday or a Saturday but not both, and also requiring the employee dancer to work two weekdays !!! What is the probable employee dancer earnings potential likely to be if she is only allowed to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday ?
Follow the money ! Club customers will be bringing the same amount of dollars into the club. However, additional clubowner dollars will now need to go towards an IRS 'legal' payroll system, toward state unemployment and disability insurance premiums, toward paying 1/2 of the employee dancers social security tax, toward full time employee dancer health insurance premiums etc. Ultimately, these additional new costs to the clubowner are not going to come out of the clubowners current door cover charge revenues, bar revenues, dancer house fee revenues ( which become illegal for employee dancers ), etc. Instead they are going to have to come from a higher percentage 'split' being applied to employee dancer private dance and VIP sales etc., perhaps even from employee dancer tips ( = tip sharing ).
Ironically, about the only source of employee dancer earnings which will escape a higher percentage 'split' with the club will be money paid directly by customers to dancers in exchange for extras in the privacy of the private dance area / VIP room.
As I said earlier, the only dancers who really benefit from an employee dancer lawsuit are those dancers who have worked for the club as independent contractors for several years ( thus will receive a sizeable settlement ), and will NOT continue to work at the club as employees in the future !!!
The 'powers that be' which actually have a vested interest in seeing dancers officially classified as employees are the IRS / state tax agencies ( automatic income reporting and withholding ), state unemployment and disability insurance funds ( a new source of additional insurance payments into these funds ), labor unions ( a source of new dues paying members ) etc.
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