So what exactly is the most that strippers can earn (top pay) in this profession. According to one guy who was giving career advice to the middle school kids, a stripper can make $250,000 in a year. What is the top pay in your opinion and how many dancers do you think are making this kind of money?
Here is the link.
Depends on the dancer, depends on the club. If she is not making at least 5bills a week she needs another job. A friend/ex of mine used to dance in Mexico at a club called amnesia. The owners would pay for her flight there and back, provide houseing(a group on condos) and a personal body gaurd while there. She would go work 2-3 weeks and come back with 6k-10k.She go about every other month.
Taking two groups of people and saying one can work overtime or get a second job and the other can work closer to but still less than full time and simply saying that each can work more does not seem to me to be an "apples to apples" comparison.
Not everybody can get a second job, some people can't even get one.
As far as the overtime thing goes, not everyone can get it.
Ther are a lot of 9-5 type places that at 5:01 they shut off the lights lock the doors and go home, you coudn't work overtime even if you wanted too.
It is true that there are some companies that use overtime on regular basis, mostly to avoid hiring extra employees, normally to save on benefits, sometimes it is practically mandatory for the employees to work it.
Ther are also companies that avoid paying overtime like if ti were the plague or something. this normally falls into two types, the first is the type that will routinely ask/tell people to come in early or stay late or come in on there day off and it is then the old "we will give you time off later" deal, the trouble is that you always end up having to take it when it is convient for them, "no you can't take friday afternoon off, we are going to be busy" ETC. Sometimes yu end up getting screwed on the deal and never get it but for the most part you do get to take it even though it may not be all that beneficial for you. The other type is when they tell you to come in early or stay late (off the clock of course) and that is just how it is, if you want your job you will do it or they will find somebody who will. Think Wal-Mart here they have been sued several times over the past years for this sort of thing.
In there eyes if you are not willing to put in long hours "for free" like some kind of psuedo manager, then you are some kind of "non-team player" and they will do what they can to get you to quit (no un-employment) or trump up some reason to fire you.
My ATF used to consider $300 to be an off night. And it wasn't unusual for her to make $1,000 in a night. She worked in a tiny hole in the wall locals LD club and she was probably one of thier top earners but my impression was that a lot of the girls there did well. This was 8 years ago, I think it's gotten harder for all but the top girls to do well. The difference in income between the top girls and the rest of them in most clubs is probably huge.
Thanks for your input Makayla. I don't know if you call your club an average club in an average town but I believe many of the numbers you hear of what strippers earn or can earn are usually at the top end of the scale. The average is not as glamorous as some might be thinking. However for a pretty but unskilled worker, stripping can be a means to get money while pursuing bigger and better things such as a better education and job. I believe most strippers are forced out of the business or just quit by the time they reach their 30's if not sooner. That's not really alot of time to make a fortune for most dancers if they are only working for average stripper pay.
I disagree. Anyone can take a second part-time job and earn more but most of us choose not to. Lots of people can work extra overtime whenever they want to but rarely do so. The chances to make more money are almost unlimited in our society, bot most people prefer to have some leisure time. Most top executives who I've known work at least 80 hours per week and work 7 days a week. The reason most of us aren't top executives is that we aren't willing to do that. We'd rather work less hard than maximize our incomes. Most dancers are the same.
Ye s I agree other people do live beyond there means as well, especially when they are younger. But most of these people are working full time or as close as they can get to it at the best paying job they can get. They are not "on purpose" working less. So while everyone can probably spend less not everyone can earn more.
Yes but that pretty much true of everyone, not just dancers. How many young guys do you see driving expensive cars that they can't afford rather than spending less and investing the difference? Young people rarely give much thought to their financial future. Just about anyone can earn more and spend less and be financially secure later in life, but how many people actually do that? So why should we expect dancers to be any different?
Yes they are making more money than they have ever seen in there lives, sort of goes along with my "what else would they be doing" point.
As far as the "well there waiting for a regular to come in" thing, Ok, and when that regular doesn't come in, then what? These are the first girls that you will hear bitching about how they didn't make any money that night, while they let god knows how many hundred walk out the door. I think everyone has had a time or two when they have left a strip club with 3 or 4 hundred dollars in there pocket that thye planned on spending because the dancers you might have spent it on couldn't be bothered to come over and get it.
I think the point of this thread was how much these girls can make not how much they choose to make.
I just wonder how these girls that were satisfied with less like you talked about above feel when they are in there 30's can't make it as a dancer anymore and have nothing to show for it and are back to being a waitress, knowing that if they had busted there ass for the last ten to 15 years they would have an easy million in the bank to live off of for the rest of there lives.
And yes if she provides good service I always tip waitresses well.
A lot of these girls, maybe most of them, start out as waitresses working their butts off to make $10-15 K per year. Then they start dancing and making 2 or 3 times as much working only about half as many hours and they think it's heaven. They aren't interested in working harder to make more and most of them don't. That's why they sit around talking to each other and waiting for a regular to walk in, there's no incentive to work harder. BTW, always tip waitresses well, it's one of the world's hardest ways to make a buck and most of them are grossly underpaid.
I agree with most of what has been said. 250K a year is the exception but it is quite possible. The girls that work at the clubs in Vegas make a 1000 a night sometimes more, sometimes a lot more. So if you work at it and treat it like a job it can be done. Making 100K a year is possible at a lot of clubs throughout the country. Even if the girl works at one of the small clubs and she only makes on average 200 dollars a night, if you do the math that is 40K a year if she works 4 nights a weeks, 50 weeks a year.
Then there is th question "what would these girls be doing if they weren't dancing" a lot have no skills that would get them anything except an entry level un-skilled blue collar job. Some are dropouts or might have only GED, most probably are high school grads but might have not had the best grades so going on to any serious colledge is probably not in the picture. So the answer is most likely some kind of not much more than minimum retail sales job.
For some perspective, if you have "real' job and you make 10 dollars (after taxes) an hour, a standard work year is 2000 hours so you make 20K a year.
The point as I see it in this is that it is possible but you have to really work at it, no one I know in the real world makes 100K-250K a year working some no skill required part time job.
Many dancers seems to have this warped veiw of reality, they think that they are supposed to be making 100K a year even though thy only work 2 days a week and are taking vacations every time they turn around.
And yes I do notice how you go to a club and there will be all those girls sitting at the bar or where ever talking to their stripper girl friends, or their boyfriends who come in just to hang out with them. They act like getting up on the stage when it is there turn is this major inconvience in there lives, all the while there will be guys at least a few sitting out there that they are ignoring, but these are the first ones to bitch about how they didn't make any money and have this "you have to pay for my time" attitude
And we have all had the experience of seeing dancers sitting in clusters talking too each other and ignoring customers. The average song is 3 mins. with the average dance now $25.00. In one hour, a busy dancer could do 10 dances and make $250.00. In a 6 hour shift thats $1,500. But that's a high end, high roller night, not the norm. I would bet that a dancer with looks, personality and skill could easily clear $100k per year, tax free. A stunner who really hustled could make $250k and still have vacation, travel and leisure time that would make the customers envious. And sometimes they have boyfriends or husbands picking up bills like car notes and rent by lying about how little they make. We should not worry about how much they make, only about whether or not we are getting value for our money when we are in the club.
I think many dancers could make $100K+ if they chose to but I don't think most do because most dancers only work part time. In fact that's the appeal for many dancers, the fact that they can pay all their expenses and have a little fun money left over without having to work a full-time job. Most dancers only work 3 or 4 days a week and regularly take vacations. Many are full-time students or mothers and don't have time to work a 40 hour job. I once met a dancer who told me she was investing most of her money and planned to quit when she had a million dollars invested. She said she was halfway there and I believe her. But I think that is pretty rare.
I think 100k/year ($400/night) ought to be easy. I know strippers lie all the time but one very good looking tells me she does makes that much even though her dances are very lame. Less good looking ones I beleive can do it, but their naughtiness would have to be inversely proportional to their looks.
200k which is $800/night I certainly beleive is possible too: In that case though we would be talking very good looking, extras, and probably some scamming (seriously leading on arks) too. I bet only about 4% fall in this category.
250k ($1000/night) is probably about the upper bound. I think we are talking very good looking, extras, scamming, and OTC encounters to boot. in order to do it. I have no problem beleiving it is possible. Probably only 1% of strippers operating at this level though.
I think a big factor too is going to be the club: of course if she works at a naughtier club she will benefit from what the other girls are reputed to do. On the other hand it won't look as good on her resume after. LOL!
Now as for your average stripper, working in your average club, not doing extras I would guess that $200-$300/night (50-75k/year) range is more typical.
Most of the ones I know are lucky to make $500 a night. Some of the really low end clubs I've been to have dancers who are probably lucky to make $100 a night. I really don't know how dancers can make it rich unless they somehow invest it at Edward Jones or something.
$250k a year will buy you alot of drugs and alcohol and let you do a bit of gambling on the side too.
At a minimum, you could be a millionare within 8 years assuming taxes took half. I do not believe very many strippers make this much money in one year. Certainly not in my area but maybe in bigger, fancier and more expensive clubs. My guess is someplace like Vegas. I know of one slow club where the dancers might average $300 to $600 a week on average. I remember many years ago one dancer told me she made about $500 a night on the busier weekends. If you took some assumptions and multiplied that out to say $2000 a week times 4 weeks you still only end up with I say only $96,000 a year but that could be tax free if not reported. If not reported that $96,000 would be like a taxpaying guy making close to $200,000 I believe.
to add to my previous msg,..that is the exception not the rule...but in a good club225.00 minimum. once again, it depends onthe dancer, how much she hustles and the club. For example I was recently helping an associate who owns a club (first club i ever worked back in the day) and a good friend of mine would work with me and the 3 shifts ranged 60.00-200.00. the same dance in my normal club wont walk out with less then 400.00 on a bad night.