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Nail Salon Workers Allege Abuse In String Of Lawsuits
AOL/Huffington Post – If you’ve ever received a speedy $10 manicure, there’s a good chance that the woman who buffed your nails was paid less than minimum wage, denied overtime, and suffered emotional abuse. At least that’s what salon workers and attorneys claim in a spate of lawsuits.
The latest, a nationwide class action suit on behalf of 13 salon workers, alleges that XpresSpa, the largest global network of premium airport salons, is guilty of a host of “systematic” labor law violations, according to the women’s attorney, C. K. Lee of Kraselnik & Lee, PLLC. An attorney representing XpresSpa said that she had “no comment” on the lawsuit.
Remarks by the nail salon workers’ legal advocates, as well as other lawsuits, depict the industry as the modern equivalent of the Dickensian factory. Among the allegations:
-- Nail salons in an affluent areas like New Canaan, Conn., are staffed largely by women bused in from Queens, Brooklyn and New York’s Chinatown in the early morning, attorney Lee alleged in an interview. And the salon workers are stuck there, especially in sandal season, until 8 or 9 in the evening.
-- Many workers endure 10-hour-plus days without lunch breaks, “or even bathroom breaks,” says Luna Ranjit, the executive director of Adhikaar, a social justice nonprofit based in Queens that works with Nepalese-speaking communities.
-- Many salons pay their workers less than minimum wage, deny them overtime and improperly categorize them as contractors to deny them benefits. (The average salary is $22,150 a year.)
-- The cosmetic industry essentially regulates itself, thanks to laws that haven’t been updated since 1938 – so salons are rife with toxic products that have been linked to reproductive problems and cancer.
The Cost Of A Cheap Manicure
As the nail salon industry exploded over the past few decades, salons engaged in a “race to the bottom,” according to Shirley Lin, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, exploiting their immigrant employees to keep prices low.
Now these women workers are fighting back…
By Claire Gordon