- Exotic dancers are suing an Alabama strip club, claiming it forced them to share tips and pay “house fees.”
- The lawsuit accused the club of violating Fair Labor’s tipped employee compensation provisions.
- The dancers also claim they were denied minimum wage and subjected to illegal bribes.
Exotic dancers are suing an Alabama strip club for at least $100,000 in damages, alleging it forced them to give up hard-earned tips to pay other workers.
In a complaint filed April 7 in the Northern District of Alabama, the strippers accused Sammy’s Gentlemen’s Club of Birmingham of eavesdropping on their tips and also demanding “illegal bribes.”
The lawsuit accused Sammy’s of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, specifically the tipped employee compensation provision, which requires employers to pay a tipped worker a minimum of $2.13 per hour.
Last year, an East Coast restaurant chain was ordered to pay $11.4 million to more than 1,300 employees, saying it paid its staff below minimum wage.
According to this latest lawsuit, the strip club failed to pay dancers’ salaries; their income came solely from customer tips, a portion of which they were contractually obligated to pay to Sammy’s.
The lawsuit says they were also forced to pay “housing fees” in order to work there, which amounted to illegal kickbacks, or kickbacks, in addition to being subject to fines and other mandatory payments.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers can receive a tip credit worth up to $5.12 per hour. But all tips received by an employee must be kept with them, except in tip-sharing agreements limited to employees who “customarily” receive tips, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The strippers said in the lawsuit that they were forced to share their tips with other employees, including DJs, managers and “moms.”
The lawsuit also claimed the dancers were misclassified as independent contractors during the course of their employment and were denied minimum wage and overtime pay.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that former exotic dancers at another Birmingham strip club, The Furnace, were employees, not independent contractors.
The dancers at The Furnace had also argued that they were not entitled to minimum wage and were forced to share tips and pay house expenses.
Sammy’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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