Posted on 03/13/2010 12:24:57 PM PST by JoeProBono
WASHINGTON,- An exotic dancer alleges in a lawsuit she and her fellow dancers should be paid wages in addition to tips at their Washington strip club.
Quansa Thompson said she could earn as much as $1,200 a night stripping at The House in Washington, but those funds came primarily from tips as the strip club's operators only paid dancers $20 each for showing up for work, The Washington Post said Friday.
Thompson, 29, is suing her former employer under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. She alleges under the federal law, operators of The House are required to pay their exotic dancers wages beyond the base $20 payments.
Thompson, who was fired from the strip club last summer, told the Post if her U.S. District Court suit results in her fellow exotic dancers gaining additional workplace rights, she would consider a return to the stage.
"It would be the best job," she said of exotic dancing. "People would have more respect for it."
I think she’s not realizing the arrangement. She’s lucky she doesn’t have to pay the club owner for the venue in which she can make money directly for clients. The $20 only technically makes her an employee, but she’s really a freelancer.
If she’s an employee then she can earn her minimum wage, but at her level of tips the minimum wage could be $0 depending on the state. And maybe the employer should ask her to tip out, sharing her tips with the rest of the staff.
Of maybe she should just keep dancing for $1,200 a night.
Tips aren't wages (the IRC falsely lists them as reporting tips as wages) so she shouldn't have to pay taxes on it.
I read on situation where the dancers paid the club for a time slot, the better the time, the more they paid. If the dancer was late or didn't show two times, they didn't get to dance at that location anymore.
Interesting concept, pay for the spot, that goes to the house, then you keep all your tips, probably seriously unrepresenting them to the IRS, and the house doesn't even get to serve booze at the stripper location. Unless that's changed, back when I worked for SPD/SO in Spokane, WA, it was illegal to serve alcohol in a strip joint.
On facebook she calls herself Nia Simone... http://www.facebook.com/Ladydwn1
The link you gave gives a “not found” reply.
The page you requested was not found.
I have never been a stripper, but I do not think that that is right. Tips are reportable income. Whether they are reported as such is another matter.
The goobildigook in the Internal Revenue Code of reporting tips as wages is misleading. Tips are not wages; they are gratuities. It is through deceit such as this one gets the nonsense of reporting tips as wages.
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