WHY TO STRIPPERS PUT UP WITH THIS??

no no no!!

$65 per shift is not bad if it was a weekend shift. Here in Columbus some clubs have done away with house fees but they take a cut out of each dance sold. So $30 lap dance, $10 of each goes to the house. So in the end customers end up paying more for lap dances if the dancers are not paying a house fee.

Club owners make money from the dancers as well as from customers. I agree that the tip out system is unfair to the dancers, but the dancers have little recourse. Dancers are independent contractors, not employees, and so cannot unionize. Dancers can decide not to work at a club, but it would be almost impossible to get all dancers to refuse to work at a SC.

Is that such a bad deal? That $65 could be considered overhead. A store in the mall has to pay rent in order to sell mechandise. A beautician/barber, if not on staff, has to pay to use the salon's equipment during the shift.

The actual amount of $65 may be high, especially depending on the earning potential and the condition of the facilities. Remember the club has to maintain the dressing rooms, maybe a private restroom for the girls, restrooms for the guests, seating, stages, etc.

Yes clubs make money off the alcohol, but not everyone drinks liquor or that all that much considering the length of time spent in the club.

There are dive clubs that aren't t reinvesting the money into the facilities like they should be, that's why they are dives...and why the hottest girls aren't usually found at the dives.

No, I'm NOT taking up for the clubs here, just playing a little devils advocate and throwing real life into the mix.

I've seen all kinds of systems employed by the clubs, ranging from the flat-rate 10inches implies, to the club tabulating every dance, to schemes in between. I suppose one way or t'other, the club needs to get its money. Whether they're taking an inordinate amount from the dancer is at times what make me mad. I'm not sure what that level would be, nor do I know a SC's operating expenses.

I like how the FKKs in Germany do it. They charge the girl a flat rate to enter the club, just like the guys, which runs 50-75Euros. Anything she makes beyond that is hers to keep. Seems imminently fair and I like knowing the girl is receiving the value I'm intending to give her.

$65 ain't too bad if it is a place where dancers are making good money with high traffic, but at a low traffic club in a economically depressed area, that may take away alot of a dancer's revenue.

I'd suggest that cutomers organize to protest high LD prices. How long would the clubs last without us! I'm sure we could come up with some great posters to have at our rallies.

tipouts seems to vary from club to club. some clubs have zero or very low tipouts, while other clubs basically are bigger robs than the robs are, lol
bottom line, just like there's a variety of dancers, there are a variety of clubs around most cities with differnt employment options for the dancers. if they don't like the way things are run at the club that they dance at, nobody is holding them there against their will, they can move on to another club.

We all know that the majority of the money spent in a strip club is spent on dances. Unless the club operators have some way of tapping into that revenue stream they aren't going to cover their rent and expenses. Some clubs do it with stage fees, others charge the dancer for each dance sold.

As to what is fair I can only say that those system which place all the risk on the dancers, where the dancer could go home in ther red, are less fair. In addition systems in which the security is paid by being tipped by the dancer is ripe for coercion and bribery.

SC's are a business and they are there to make money. Dancers are "independent contractors" and that comes with a lot of perks (like not having to wipe down tables or marry ketchups at the end of our shifts). When we get there we have to "rent the stage" which is called our stage fee. This fee depends on the club and depends on the day and time you decide to work. It ranges from club to club but at some places it can be free (first 10 girls on a sunday opening shift) all the way up to $70 (Saturday 10pm-2am shift). In Vegas it's as high as $150/shift. ON top of this fee, we have to tip out at the end of the shift (and this is where the real scam is IMO). This is pretty much the same at all clubs: Deejay gets 10%, bouncers get %5 (or more depending on how many bouncers there are), house mom $5-$10, valet/bouncer that walks you out at night $3-$5.

I always suggest that customers tip on top of lapdances because you never know how much of that $20 the girl really gets to keep.

... and full nude places are the biggest rip off of all. The frist place I danced at (when I was a naive little 19 y/o) made us do $50 nude dances and only keep $25 of it. Plus we had to get guys to buys us "drinks" all night to cover our stage fee.

And then there's The Hip Hugger model:

No tip outs or stage fees taken from the girls. Only $1 a minute fine for every minute they're late. Girls pick and pay for their jukebox music when on stage (like $1 for every stint on stage.) Club only charges a $3 cover at night and $3 per beer. Dances are $10 a song, with all money going to the dancer. No drink sale requirement of the gals per shift. Bceuase the dances are sooooooo cheap, they sell themselves. LONG LIVE THE HUGGER!!!!!!!!!!

Friend of mine works at one of the $65 tip out clubs in Philly. They keep all of the $20 dances, $300 per hour from champagne courts.

Took this friend to scout another Philly club where friend #2 works. $16 tip out. But club keeps $5 from every $20 dance and dancers only get a smaller percentage of the champagne courts.

Different business models. For the dancers, pay me now or pay me later. Probably similar take home in the end.

In NYC stage fees can easily be $125 or more. Add the minimum expected tipouts and the girl is basically $200 in the hole before she does her first dance.

10inches, the girls "put up" with this becuase of the earning potential in those clubs. If no girl could cover her house fee and tipouts then the market would correct itself.

Is it a free market? ACE in Detroit is a close knit group of club owners. I have no direct knowledge of how they work, but it wouldn't surpise me to learn that they have all agreed that the Detroit area clubs will operate on the same business model, charging tipouts, stage fees, etc. Dancers cannot move around and test the market because it is rigged against competition.

I have found that the highest quality of dancers, and best dances occur at clubs where the fees are upfront vs clubs where the club gets a cut out of every dance.

Some of the best clubs I have visited all had one thing in common, no shift fee or tipout for the dancers, and the dancers got all the money from the dances. The customer would pay a fee for access to the private dance area for either a given amount of time or a certain number of dances. After this everything was up to the dancer. The dancers kept all the money and were free to give any discounts they wanted. The club usually got you on other things though, such as a high cover charge, inflated drinks, often with a drink minimum, mandatory coat checks with a fee to retrieve your coat, etc.

Not all strip clubs have private contractor dancers. I was told by a dancer that BBF in Indy treats there dancers as employees who make an hourly wage plus tips/dances.

A dancer told me that Hip Hugger has private contractor dancers without a stage fee.

Both in Indiana near Indy have great cheap dances($12/$10) using different business models.

I would take BBF over HH and IRC in Florida over both of these.

This is common in all entertainment businesses. When a major band is playing - do you think the venue is paying them? No. Its a producer or promoter who is paying them. And the producer and promoter is also paying the venue to use their stage.

A play is put on by a play group - do you think the stage is letting them use it free? No. Often it is a split of the tickets but the play group pays the stage for it's use.

Ever seen a strip club run by strippers? Of course not - why? You need lawyers, your name is all over the fucking place on papers and licenses, if something happens its you and your club in the newspaper... Strippers aren't going to go out and make their own club because they know how well they have it as it is.

deogol is correct about the entertainment industry. Not dealing with strippers, but talk radio. A new radio host has to pay to put his show on the air, with the goal of getting sponsors as the show catches on with the audience. The contract calls for the talent to pay for the show and then a split of ad revenue once the sponsors come in. No ad revenue, they the show is dropped and someone else can use that time slot.

Super, I disagree with that premise. And what I mean by saying that the market would correct itself is that, if girls cannot make more stripping than working other jobs, then they won't strip.

For example, if every club in the country charged a flat $400 stage fee, I am guessing that there would be far fewer strippers and, hence, fewer patrons and clubs.

Some of the girls in places where high tipouts are the norm certainly also have the ability to relocate to areas with lower tipouts.

Net-net, if a club charged tipouts that are unreasonable for the given area then that club will find itself severely short of strippers.

not to be too blunt about it, but the club owners shaft everyone. the dancers get hit with "rent" fees to go on stage. They have to cough up a percentage of any money they get from private dances or have to pay a set amount to "rent" the spot they give the dance in (usually on a per-song basis). Meanwhile the customers get hit with a door fee, (usually) over-priced drinks, fees to "enter" the private rooms, any "tips" the staff can screw you out of, and if that weren't enough, part of the money they think they're giving to the dancer for her work gets skimmed off by the owners.
when I think of it all, the term "racket" springs into my mind, how about you?

Yeah, sanitago. It's a racket. Oh well. Personally, I don't give a hoot if they have to pay to dance. We have to pay them. In an ideal world, everything would be free. LMAO, yeah right, as if that's ever going to happen.

Everyone has to make money I suppose. It costs a lot of money and effort to run a club and on some nights oweners actually lose money by being open. Now I am not the great owner sympathizer, but if the owner can't earn enough for it to be worthwhile to go through the headaches and expenses involved then he won't run a club.

I've heard many "stories" from people that works in the business. I can not think of any two that were the same!