Strippers' bill of rights bill signed into law in Washington state

April 28, 2024 8:22 PM

Strippers' bill of rights bill signed into law in Washington state. The new law requires training for employees in establishments to prevent sexual harassment, identify and report human trafficking, de-escalate conflict and provide first aid. It also mandates security workers on site, keypad codes on dressing rooms and panic buttons in places where entertainers may be alone with customers.

Most dancers in the state are independent contractors who are paid by customers and then must pay club fees every shift, Zack-Wu said. The new law limits the fees owners can charge, capping them at $150 or 30% of the amount dancers make during their shift — whichever is less. It also prohibits late fees and other charges related to unpaid balances.

posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (30 comments total)

This is a piece of legislation I had no idea was moving through the legislature in my state! I'm so glad to hear about this! As a gay man I don't tend to go to stripper bars often but back 30 years ago I had a friend who loved going to them but hated going with most of his friends because they got all weird once they were in the place, so he'd take me to stripper bars and pay for my booze while we sat and chatted and hung out like normal people. It was a strange relationship but it did really deeply expose me to stripper bar culture from ages ago. And this honestly sounds like a great improvement for everyone working there. I hope the owners realize that happy workers means more money for them.
posted by hippybear at 8:34 PM on April 28 [15 favorites]

Excellent!
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:01 PM on April 28

so he'd take me to stripper bars and pay for my booze while we sat and chatted and hung out like normal people

In WA, strip clubs still aren't allowed to sell alcohol. Full nudity and full contact is fine, but no booze. The article says that this is going to change, though, which will no doubt be music to the ears of the club owners.

And this honestly sounds like a great improvement for everyone working there.

I agree.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:01 PM on April 28

I now live in WA. I then lived in NM and we would drive to TX and even Juarez to go to the stripper bars. Lifetimes change across decades.

I have no desire to visit stripper bars anymore. Brian is long lost out of my life.
posted by hippybear at 9:05 PM on April 28

capping them at $150 or 30% of the amount dancers make during their shift — whichever is less

Genuine question: why are legislators in 2024 still signing laws with fixed dollar amounts in them?
posted by rh at 9:43 PM on April 28 [10 favorites]

Genuine question: why are legislators in 2024 still signing laws with fixed dollar amounts in them?

They're not, I just went and read SB 6105.

New Section 2, to be added to Chapter 49.46 RCW, Subsection (3) and (9):
(3) An establishment may not charge an entertainer:
[...]
(e)(i) Within an eight-hour period, any leasing fee that exceeds:
(A) The lesser of $150 or 30 percent of amounts collected by the
entertainer, excluding amounts collected for adult entertainment
provided in a private performance area; and
(B) 30 percent of amounts collected by the entertainer for adult
entertainment provided in a private performance area.
[...]
(9) The department must adjust the dollar amount in subsection
(3)(e) of this section every two years, beginning January 1, 2027,
based upon changes in the consumer price index during that time
period.

SB 6105's New Section 1 and 2 go into force on January 1st, 2025, so every two years after that the $150 will be adjusted to match inflation.

(for those outside of WA: "RCW": the Revised Code of Washington (state), i.e. WA state law)
posted by zekesonxx at 10:21 PM on April 28 [14 favorites]

Never been to a strip club.

But good on us Washington. We get some things right.
posted by Windopaene at 10:26 PM on April 28 [3 favorites]

I feel like the news outlet missed a trick by failing STRIPPERS COVERED as the headline though
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:48 PM on April 28 [20 favorites]

For some background, much of this precipitated after recent unusual raids targeting gay bars in Seattle, WA.

Jockstraps and exposed nipples were given as pretexts, even though police in this city have become renowned for not doing much to stem serious violence and nuisance crimes despite pulling record-high salaries, so it looked like another sideways attempt to target the city's LGBTQ communities.

In any case, this lead to protests that ultimately culminated in legislative changes.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:34 PM on April 28 [14 favorites]

In WA, strip clubs still aren't allowed to sell alcohol.

Which means instead of "folks sitting around having a few beers and watching strippers", you end up with "folks who are willing to overpay for a glass of cranberry juice to sit around and watch strippers", which seems far more likely to skew 'weirdo/creep', so I'm guessing the workers will be happy as well.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:51 AM on April 29 [3 favorites]

Huh, I'm curious about your thinking there. Overpaying for beer vs overpaying for cranberry juice -- why is one creepy and the other less so? My impression is that, hippybear's friend aside, the draw is the almost-naked ladies and not the booze. Do people really treat them as their normal hangout bars?
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:18 AM on April 29

I don't know personally, but that's what I've heard from folks closer to dancers/strippers than I am. Not sure about strip clubs being plain old hangout bars for folks, but apparently the lack of booze tends to deter some casual visitors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by rmd1023 at 5:42 AM on April 29 [1 favorite]

In California topless bars (as opposed to full frontal) are allowed to serve alcohol. They make a good place to take customers for business lunches. Basically during the day they are “Hooters” without the T-shirts.

I’m told that as the day goes on things get closer to being a “regular” strip club. That part is unclear to me, I’d be fascinated to know the truth of it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:50 AM on April 29

Sex work is work. This sounds like good legislation.

I haven't been to a strip club in a couple of decades, but I was a casual student of all things vice when I spent a year traveling for business once upon a time. The places I saw that didn't sell alcohol typically sold ice or rented coolers for BYO. IME, those places have been full-nude rather than just topless.

In 1994 in Greenville, SC, there was a club on Augusta Road, US 25. (I remember everything but the club's name, I guess.) When you walked in the front door, there was an attendant to direct you to the right for topless women, a full bar, and pop/rock music. To the left were fully nude women, no bar, and country music. If you preferred the country side of things, you could buy drinks at the bar in the other room and bring them over.

I think I was in Corinth, MS when I went to a "strip club" in town: Not even topless; just bikinis. The place wasn't open very late, and when it closed for the night, many of the dancers went to another place just outside of town: Topless and full contact above the waist.
posted by phrits at 6:12 AM on April 29 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised to hear there are strip joints that don't serve alcohol. I always pictured them as bars that added the naked people to compete with all the other bars. Guess I don't get out much.
posted by pracowity at 7:12 AM on April 29 [2 favorites]

Which means instead of "folks sitting around having a few beers and watching strippers", you end up with "folks who are willing to overpay for a glass of cranberry juice to sit around and watch strippers", which seems far more likely to skew 'weirdo/creep', so I'm guessing the workers will be happy as well.

And, it means you get completely trashed people who pre-gamed hard since they knew there was no more alcohol once you get to the strip club.

Years ago, I had a series of coworkers who really liked going to strip clubs so I tagged along sometimes to be social, both in Washington and elsewhere. Personally, I found the Washington clubs to have a really weird dynamic, with the no alcohol but also (at least at the places my coworkers went to) with an anything-goes vibe in terms of contact (rather than the strict "no touching" kinds of rules that I think of as being more normal in that setting). Maybe those places were outliers and others were more regulated, I don't know. Overall it wasn't my thing and I'm happy to no longer have those coworkers and doubt I'll ever end up in another strip club on my own volition.

I'm strongly pro legislation that makes things better for sex workers, who have what are often very hard jobs and deserve all the protections and autonomy possible.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:27 AM on April 29 [2 favorites]

Local reporting here in Washington has convinced me that the alcohol piece is crucial, to drive up margins enough to make a business model work that isn't just "exploit the performers hideously".

Without the path to a liquor license, it sounds like this would just effectively be prohibition on strip clubs. With it, it seems like a definite improvement over the current situation.
posted by gurple at 8:16 AM on April 29 [4 favorites]

This is at the same time that Seattle's reactionary city government is proposing legislation targeting sex workers with police harassment via "loitering" laws.

These days it often feels like Democratic reps at our state level are more progressive than at the city level.
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:57 AM on April 29 [1 favorite]

It more than just "feels" that way; Seattle's current city council crop is a faux-liberal conservative wet dream. It's got big "pride paint on an APC" vibes.
posted by ChrisR at 9:00 AM on April 29 [5 favorites]

These seem like sad and desperate places.
posted by Czjewel at 9:46 AM on April 29

Hi chariot! Thanks for the post. I did have to do a double-take, but indeed, this time it's news from my neck of the woods, the *other* WA! <3

I've been following this story on Seattle Now for the past couple months. They had some good coverage of why alcohol service actually makes strip clubs safer.
posted by cnidaria at 2:31 PM on April 29 [4 favorites]

They make a good place to take customers for business lunches.

In what industries is this still an acceptable thing to do??
posted by Audreynachrome at 3:45 PM on April 29 [5 favorites]

I was wondering when I read that. That feels like a sentiment from 30-40 years ago.
posted by hippybear at 3:51 PM on April 29

They had some good coverage of why alcohol service actually makes strip clubs safer.

I have to say, the stripper clubs here in the Spokane area, even across to the Idaho Stateline where they seem to allow alcohol on the premises but not actually in the room where the girls are dancing? They feel much less safe for everyone in there. I've only been in them a few times, back when I was doing office supply delivery I took some of them copy paper and other things a few times. But my assessment of them, after my rather lengthy time being in alcohol serving establishments in different states a few decades earlier, is that those establishments without alcohol in WA were not safe places. I hadn't put it together that the lack of alcohol sales was making for a lesser club experience because less money means less security/cleaning/whatever... but yeah.

The problem with establishments like many in my area in eastern WA is, the building owners/club managers rely on the kickbacks they get out of the dancers' tips for their income.

I really hope this law improves things. I am sure the owners/managers are already plotting how to get around the new law.
posted by hippybear at 3:57 PM on April 29 [2 favorites]

In what industries is this still an acceptable thing to do??

I get the sense that these days (assuming you mean big business, small businesses are all over the place in terms of policies) that going to strip clubs is really only a thing at low levels (where people might not know policies, or just not care) and way up at the top (where you can freely ignore policies). In the broad middle, it does not seem to be even a fraction as common as it might have been 20+ years ago. I'd expect to get fired or put on a performance plan if I took clients or coworkers to a club and got caught.

But I'm sure there are industries (like sales to the military/industrial complex maybe?) where it is still completely normalized.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:38 PM on April 29 [1 favorite]

>They make a good place to take customers for business lunches.

In what industries is this still an acceptable thing to do??

I retired 7 years ago but at that time it was still a thing in the Networking Equipment business. I would be very surprised if companies who regularly make deals in the tens of millions don't still turn a blind eye to whatever the sales guys do.

To be cynical about it you can look at it as a way to keep the women out of the decision making process. For some reason they're seldom invited.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:47 PM on April 29

To be cynical about it you can look at it as a way to keep the women out of the decision making process. For some reason they're seldom invited.

That's the main reason I assumed it was mostly gone as a formal thing - Raytheon may not *care*, but presumably they're still subject to hostile workplace suits and the like? It seems like having those charges on a company card would be pretty hard to defend and still argue that you're an equal employer...
posted by Audreynachrome at 8:07 PM on April 29 [3 favorites]

That's the main reason I assumed it was mostly gone as a formal thing - Raytheon may not *care*, but presumably they're still subject to hostile workplace suits and the like? It seems like having those charges on a company card would be pretty hard to defend and still argue that you're an equal employer...

I strongly suspect you’re right. However, given the sort of commissions sales guys see on these deals, I’m guessing they see it as a very small off-the-books personal investment.

Fortunately, I only had to deal with the technical part of the sales team. It was the business guys who were all off doing this.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:48 AM on April 30

Even if the other company arranged and paid for everything, I don't think I could attend a business outing at a strip club. Company policy would be to say "thanks but no thanks" or get them to change the venue to something welcoming to everyone (whether everyone's invited or not).
posted by pracowity at 11:34 AM on April 30 [2 favorites]

But I'm sure there are industries (like sales to the military/industrial complex maybe?) where it is still completely normalized.

Indeed. I thought of that as highly old-school for the first couple decades in IT – I think we had a fratty sales guy offer once but he dropped it when a gay colleague insisted that he knew just the place. It just wasn’t a thing anyone thought was okay, even the guy I knew who actually mentioned going to clubs on his own time.

Then I moved east and ended up in an office building in Crystal City, Virginia near where Lockheed Martin had a huge presence. There’s a really good kabob place in a tiny strip mall (the kind where people in three piece suits are chatting about the food in line with taxi drivers) which some coworkers and I used to walk over to a lot, but on the other side of the 7/11 is the Crystal City Restaurant (Apple Maps link for a photo), whose shiny chrome front somehow made it seem even smaller and more desperate in person. I think at least half the time we walked by, there were people in military uniforms in groups with people wearing expensive suits who radiated “high-end sales” going in or out, so we used to assume that place was funded by the need to smooth over any problems on the Joint Strike Fighter program when you didn’t have time for travel. It was so stereotypical that you’d have been forgiven for thinking it was a film set.
posted by adamsc at 5:44 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]