Strippers and gentleman’s clubs are well-known for many things. I’m referring, of course, to independent contractor misclassification lawsuits. 

Clubs often classify their performers as independent contractors and, after a string of lawsuits alleging misclassification, some clubs are shedding prior pay practices and reclassifying dancers as employees.

And everyone lived happily ever after. The end.

But this is litigation land, not a fairy tale, and plaintiffs’ lawyers still need to make money. Some of the reclassified dancers are finding that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. In other words, being an employee stripper (instead of an independent contractor stripper) still ain’t that great. So they sued again.

In a lawsuit filed last week in California, a group of dancers complain that when their clubs reclassified them as employees, the clubs “began implementing a new compensation system for the dancers, which substantially reduced their pay – often by a difference of hundreds of dollars or more per shift.” 

The dancers say that’s illegal retaliation. I’d say it’s math. 

The cost of doing business just increased drastically. Treating workers as employees means that the business incurs new expenses — payroll taxes, unemployment premiums, workers’ compensation coverage, possibly overtime premiums, and in California, meal and rest breaks and reimbursement for business expenses. 

The lawsuit is pending in the Superior Court for San Diego County. 

For more information on joint employment, gig economy issues, and other labor and employment developments to watch in 2019, join me in Philadelphia on Feb. 26 or Chicago on Mar. 21 for the 2019 BakerHostetler Master Class on Labor Relations and Employment Law: Meeting Today’s Challenges. Advance registration is required. Please email me if you plan to attend, tlebowitz@bakerlaw.com. If you list my name in your RSVP, I will have your registration fee waived.

© 2019 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.