A year ago California passed a law requiring all entertainers in the strip club industry to become minimum wage employees. Strippers were considered independent contractors before this law which means they paid a house fee to work anywhere between 60-300$ and shared a percentage of their dances to the club. This system was fair and strippers were being paid based on how hard they hustled for dances. BUT now with this new law, strippers are not being paid for their dances! Strippers are getting paid 15$ in San Francisco CA an hour to be nude or topless, perform private shows, and dance on stage and not a single penny from lap dances goes to them unless they ask for a tip. These entertainers are only getting profit from their dances until a ridiculous quota between 180- 500$ is met and then a percentage of only 40-60% is given to any dances AFTER that number was met. For example I made 500$ in dances one day and got a pay out of 47$. This employee system is forcing dancers to leave California since we are getting paid less than waiters now. Customers pay for these expensive dances thinking it's for the girl only for the club to have to forcefully keep all the money in order to afford to pay everyone hourly and limit the amount of hours an entertainer can work. Strippers are being robbed by California's state law and we DEMAND to go back to independent contractors. We are not getting any profit off of this employee system and have families to feed and bills to pay. This type of work is not worth minimum wage or an hourly wage at all, its worth how hard you hustle. We are business women not employees. Being naked and dancing in front of a crowd or for people privately should not be worth 15$ an hour. It's forcing club owners to lose money and take all of our dance money away. This is a Brutal and disgusting system that California has created. It's truly sad to see many of these hardworking women break down in tears and having to flee the state because their hard work is no longer being paid off. Strippers are now slaves to large strip club corporations. Heartbreaking would be an understatement.
