Stripping: A Wise Economic Choice

Stripping as a job may pay a lot but IMHO, it costs a lot to the girl. It is almost a living hell. Further, it offers no long term job security, coupled with a potential of facing sexual assault regularly, douchebag management/customers, all the associated drama, possible issues in finding a partner, having to hide from people you know, and it doesn't seem like a wise choice to me.

Not saying these generalizations apply to each and every one, but still these are not rarities either. Stripping as a job, can fuck up even the most sane female.

I'm sure some of the hottest dancers are in the 75,000 to 100,000 range. If you're gonna be a whore, at least get paid well doing it.

At the club I work at, the top earners make roughly $80-$100k+ a year. IMO under $50k is at the low end of the spectrum for a dancer. A lot of people don't believe that this is possible without doing extras, but allow me to explain (using my club's dance structure as a model):

Let's say a girl works 6 hours a night, 4 days a week. At the club she works at there are table dances for $20 and the girl gets to keep all of it. If she can manage to do 5 an hour (at one song a piece, this is easy) that's $20 x 5 which equals $100 right into her pocket. If she manages to do this the entire night that's an easy $600 that the club doesn't get a cut of. Now, this club also has 1/2 champagne rooms for $300 and of that the girl keeps $150. Doing one of those a night will net the girl $150, which covers her minimum tip out ($20 to DJ, $10 to house). We're at $720 right now, not counting stage money and misc. tips. This is obviously a kind of best case scenario, but unless you're ugly/stupid/a dumpster human/not much of a hustler/you work in a shithole it's easy to net over $2k a week. I have no idea how some girls can't make their rent/car payments/whatever. It's actually mindboggling.

So, I wouldn't say it's a living hell at all. Really, as an attractive female, you're going to have to deal with douchebags wherever you go. It's nice to get compensated for that and believe it or not... YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT TO DO! That's right. Unfortunately, a lot of dancers don't have much of a long-term vision and don't really make any preparations for the future. The trick to making it as a dancer is to approach it as a business and not a lifestyle/hobby/whatever the fuck else.

I'm pretty upfront with my friends and family about what I do, but I'll agree with you that it does put unnecessary strain on relationships. The kind of guys that want to date strippers are not the kind of guys that I want to date.

There are definitely cons, but they don't bother me enough to toil as a wage slave and as they say... better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.

Additionally, being a charismatic person in general can open doors for you via stripping that you might not have had opportunities for otherwise.

I know of a previous ATF who was a great girl with a great personality who is now in real estate (through a connection she made as a dancer) and is doing great for herself and working on becoming a broker.

I dunno. I still don't think that I can make it. :)

I think it's tougher than you think to pull down $1050 a week at the average club working only 3 days.

But I agree it CAN be a better paying job than what else would likely be available. The issue for most dancers seems to be what duo said: "The trick to making it as a dancer is to approach it as a business and not a lifestyle/hobby/whatever the fuck else."

Working erratically taking weeks off, leaving early not to mention blowing the money after they've got it.

Being able to mostly set your own schedule and when you may or may not want to work is also a nice perk most of us don’t have.

“…Stripping as a job may pay a lot but IMHO, it costs a lot to the girl …”

Most “regular” jobs are no walk in the park and are often very stress-filled. I have heard many more non-strippers (male, female) complain about their jobs and the hell that it is, than strippers complain.

No job is perfect – it is more the exception than the norm that people “love” what they do and have no complaints - IMO.

I would be a stripper if I could. What a gig.

My ATF told me she made a little over $63k working just days per week.

She claims just a portion of it and has a couple of kids so she gets a several thousand dollar tax refund because of the EIC.

On top of that, gets food stamps and free medical for the kids.

EZ money IMHO.

(3) days per week *

I know a stripper who tried to get a job doing something else and couldn't afford to live on what she can earn at jobs outside of the sex industry. She hates stripping but she has no choice, she also needs to eat and live indoors so she strips.

That is called *working the system* - motor!!!

I do not disagree with the potential for 50k-100k over a year at least in metro area. However, I live in a fairly rural area and have been told by a top tier dancer she only averages $700 per week. Plus no stripper is banking every dance possible every hr of every day.

As for the amounts before and after tax.... you're not factoring in benefits. For the sake of argument let's assume the US goes bankrupt soon and social security no longer exists (those pesky payroll taxes)

Before Tax After Tax Benefits

Min Wage $15,080 $13,293 None?
2 X Min $30,160 $25,259 possible heath insurance
4 X Min $60,320 $47,289 health + retirement
Stripper $54,600 $54,600 none

Yeh it's better than minimum wage, but there is no future. No tangible job experience to get something else with comparable pay. Not paying taxes = no credit for car or home. One medical problem and you're bankrupt for life without health insurance. It may be a good deal 'now' but the long term costs aren't in a girls favor by any stretch of the imagination.

OT: this is a big reason why I only really like stripper who can pull of the 'student stripping part time' angle. I know. I know it all a lie. But lifer who started at 18 and still doing it at 40+ just makes me depressed any more. If stripping is a means to an end, fine. It is not and should not be a life's career.

Why don't you become a stripper.

The norm in the Pittsburgh region is between $500 and $1000 a week from what I've been told. That's what the girls working 4 to 5 nights a week earn. It's a huge range, they have good weeks and bad ones.

My ATF averages well over $2000 a week but does extras ITC and OTC. She has earned between $125000 and $150000 per year for the last 3 years. Another dancer at the same club, age 38, is the hardest working dancer I've ever seen. She won't tell me how much she makes, but with no extras she has saved over $250000 in the last 4 years. She's got a Bachelors Degree from Boston University and says she makes more money and has better working conditions stripping than working in her previous profession. Like any job, its what you make it.

It looks as if the OP is taking for granted that strippers (and for that matter anyone self-employed whose income is primarily in cash transactions) will simply abstain from paying any sort of taxes on that income. That's a good way to end up one day losing your swag in lawyer fees and fines. Someone self-employed with a 54K gross income should at the very least be setting aside contributions to their own health insurance and savings/investment fund AND be filing their self-employment tax estimates

I would think many of the full time dancers would declare some income just probably not the majority of it – as motorhead posted w.r.t. his ATF

I knew a dancer for a few years who openly told me that she dutifully files her income tax return every year, but she never declares more than $50,000. She owns her home. She's guessing that if the IRS ever connected her with owning her home, she'd have some 'splainin' to do.

jack: "But stripping is even better, after taxes, than working for 4 times the minimum wage."

Yeah, but they have to grind their ass against PLs and pretend to like then? How many girls could stomach that?

@dougster the alternative is usually figuratively grinding your ass against a PL and pretending that you like them for a lot less.

A lot of strippers are in the busniss feild & make good money at there biz job & strip on the side for extra $$$$$$

A sex job always pays well, until

1. guys no longer find you attractive due to your age, or

2. the economy tanks.

The Toronto dancer who services me sweetly has done well economically from her game. She is older (42) and planning to open a business to support herself in her looming dotage. I have been invited to help finance this venture. My sweetie claimed to have saved $500K that she wants to put into her venture.

I didn't believe her claims of saving such an impressive sum and I have no intention of investing even a penny in her goofy proposal but while we were in Hawaii on vacation in January sweetie really pressed me for cash. She had a half-assed business plan and she showed me her investment and savings account statements. Be damned if she doesn't have that $500K in savings! It is in mutual funds and laddered 5 year GICs.

I gave her some solid advice about a better investment regime for her savings but she was having none of it. She is bound and determined on going ahead with her business idea.

Good luck to her is all that I can say.

farmerart: "I gave her some solid advice about a better investment regime for her savings but she was having none of it. She is bound and determined on going ahead with her business idea."

Yeah, after making $100 million+ in the oil business, what the hell would you know about making money, right, art? :-)

There's a few girls in Seattle who I am sure have net worths in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars earned mostly through stripping. Every single one of them did some kind of extras, however.

I couldn't even get an audition!

@Jacklash: the dancers that do report their income pay about 30-35% on taxes. Why? Because we don't have them payroll taxes, that's why!!!!!!!

@stripclubromer: I rather be stripping than being back on a ship. The military has done more harm to my emotional, physical, and financial health than stripping. I had been actually sexually assaulted in the military, while in a club I haven't. While stripping, my bills are always paid on time while I have to be penny pinching while in the military. While stripping, I have quality time to spend with my spouse and son unlike the military. It sounds weird, but when I strip I feel pretty sane and well adjusted but when I do my military duties (reserve) it's awful in the mental part.

@Duo Maxwell: weekly averages vary a lot in different parts of the US, and the rest of the world. While in Richmond, Va or Austin Tx a normal week is like 900 bucks a week, in Baltimore or Dallas is about 2.2K a week working about three days a week.

@mjx01: not so much. If getting a vanilla job, a dancer can arrange the words in a way that would make her seem as if she was self employed and got skills in the money managing field, a very desirable skill for people working in the financial industry. Or, a dancer might be savvy with the pole and decide to open a dancing studio (in the Hampton Roads area, I know two former dancers who had opened dance studios near the navy bases). So, it's completely false saying that stripping doesn't teach any additional skills other than pole dancing and lap grinding. Plus, a dancer who's going to school for psychology can do a great deal of research in a strip club with them customers. Also, health insurance isn't only acquired through a vanilla employer; a dancer can buy an individual premium, or be covered by her spouse or another relative's premium. Plus, any smart dancer would get disability insurance (I pay 55 @ month for mine through Met Life). Last, but not least; a good number of dancers (especially around big military installations) are receiving or waiting some form of VA or DoD compensation and stripping is basically the only job they can do because the military really messed them up.

@JayJaydancer - That's true, but it also varies for individuals too and from club to club. I actually dance in Richmond, Northern VA, Baltimore and DC and don't have a problem netting 2k a week, but I guess it's harder for some people.

Anyone that posted in this thread and thinks that stripping is some kind of dead end absolutely lacks imagination.

duomaxwell, you dance in Richmond? Holy crap. I live in the Richmond area. I need to come see you!

Okay, you're more than welcome to.

Duo banks cause she's one of the few conehead strippers on this planet. She charges $200 per sensor ring toss, no refunds if you miss her cone.