Will I make money that day or will I lose more than I walked in with?” Because of the high house fees, I have often worked an 8-12 hour shift and left the club with less than minimum wage or even ‘in the hole’ because I now owe the club back rent. It’s exploitation of desperate women and it’s unreasonable. In the L&I report, one anonymous dancer said: “The worst part about this job in Washington is the astronomically high house fees. “The club can take 10 percent to 60 percent in one night. The dancer has to pay the club for the stopped payment, Lexy said. The dancers spoke of one customer who paid for a private room with a credit or debit card, then stopped payment on the card saying they were unhappy with the performance. One club charges a dancer $20 every time she steps outdoors, she said. In some cases, if a dancer chooses to work fewer shifts a week, the club will increase her house fees for each shift. If the dancer does not, she has to pay the difference to the club, Zack-Wu said. Spokane’s Deja Vu also demands that dancers sell a specific number of drinks every night. A photo of the private-room rates at one Washington club show the establishment taking $75 of a $200 fee for 15 minutes, $120 of a $360 fee for a half hour, and $150 of a $500 fee for an hour. Zack-Wu was campaign manager for the effort.Įvery time a dancer takes a customer to a private room, the club takes a cut of what the dancer earns there, they said. Two interviewed dancers – Madison Zack-Wu and Lexy, who did not want her last name used – are point people for a Seattle-based dancers association, Strippers Are Workers, which is pushing for SB 5614. Three dancers who talked to Crosscut strongly disagreed with Forbes’ characterization, and their information was reinforced in the L&I report, which included input from eight anonymous dancers. Tips that dancers pay to security people, DJs and servers are strictly voluntary, he said. In a brief interview, Forbes, nephew of longtime, now-retired Seattle strip-club mogul Roger Forbes, said his clubs charge dancers basic house fees - and nothing else. A November 2020 Washington Department of Labor & Industries report said these “house fees” can range from $65 to $165 a shift, with the average fee being greater than $100. Instead, the dancer pays the club to be allowed to dance in it. That means a club does not pay them to dance. The 11 clubs in Washington cannot make money from selling alcohol, so they pile fees on their dancers to make a profit.Īlmost all exotic dancers are independent contractors, not employees of the clubs. Oregon allows the sale of liquor, which has led to a thriving exotic-dancing industry in Portland.Īlcohol sales are a huge revenue source for the Portland clubs. Washington is one of a few states that do not allow liquor to be sold in strip clubs. “This bill would significantly change the relationship between the dancers and the establishments,” Forbes told the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee at a Feb. The key proposed change would allow liquor to be sold at strip clubs, which Saldana, three interviewed dancers, and Eric Forbes, owner of seven Puget Sound-area and two Portland-area strip clubs including Deja Vu and Dream Girls, say would drastically change this scene’s financial dynamics. Saldana introduced Senate Bill 5614 to change that, as well as to upgrade safety measures and guard against unfair terminations of their contracts. “The whole business model is based on the backs of the dancers,” said Sen. Washington’s exotic dancers work under a brutal, chaotic economic model that the state Legislature is thinking about changing. After a round of dances on stage, one man opted for a private-room performance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |