labor strife

Kansas Strippers Win Unemployment Benefits

Photo: iStockphoto

Working in a strip club is seen by some as a kind of unemployment insurance — an in-between-jobs job — but a Kansas State Supreme Court ruling Friday stands to legitimize exotic dancing as a career, the kind you can collect unemployment from when you’re fired. The court challenged the tradition of strip clubs classifying their employees as independent contract workers in order to avoid paying benefits and unemployment. It found that strict house rules like rates and boundaries meant that the club has a “right of control” over dancers, according to The Wall Street Journal, “rendering them employees rather than contractual talent.” It’s definitely good news for dancers who have been denied worker’s compensation, like the South Carolina woman who was seriously injured when a gunfight broke out in a club, but could complicate things for those who hoped to get out of the business without their name on the books.

Kansas Strippers Win Unemployment Benefits