Two exotic dancers from PT's strip clubs have filed a lawsuit accusing owners of cheating about 300 women out of their minimum wage and benefits -- and threatening to steal their table-dance tips if they complained about it.
Brandy Apple and Amanda Sheer, both Missouri residents, filed the class-action lawsuit last month demanding back pay and damages for the hundreds of strippers who've worked for VCG Holding Corp. -- which owns PT's Brooklyn, PT's Centreville, PT's Sports, the Penthouse Club and Roxy -- without a wage or benefits, some for more than ten years.
See also: 13 Reasons Your Exotic Dancer Hates You
According to the lawsuit, the strippers are paid "solely through the tips received from customers when they performed exotic table, chair, couch, lap, and/or VIP room dances."
Strippers don't get to keep all of their tips, the lawsuit says. Doormen, DJs, managers and other employees all get a cut, as determined by the owners, as well as an additional "tip-out," worth about $1 per song, at the end of the night.
Dancers who demanded minimum wage or benefits were penalized through termination, the confiscation of all table-dance tips and other retaliations, according to the lawsuit.
"Tips belong to the person they are given to," the lawsuit says. "Table-dance tips were given by patrons directly to dancers...and therefore, belong to dancers."
Think you could hack it as a stripper? Continue reading to read the long list of rules Brandy Apple and Amanda Sheer say they had to follow at PT's.
