no, it doesn’t *ensure* anything. tipping more might just mean the owner has more money to steal from the technician.

Now who’s grandstanding? I don’t see why you’re taking dcgirl13’s comment as being against you in some ways. She’s simply pointing out a fact—tipping perpetrates unhealthy (from an ethical POV) practices, and that labor laws ought to address this. If she’s not supposed to articulate views of that nature in the…

Write your congressional representatives, is my suggestion. But I agree - Articles like this do not emphasize that course of action. It bugs me when we only emphasize individual action we can take with individual employees. Is the point to make the customer feel good about herself walking out the door after leaving a…

When garment workers in Los Angeles had similar issues, they had some success by sustained protests against the businesses engaging in abuses. There were also outreach campaigns to educate workers about their rights, and pro bono legal efforts to represent them in court. In California, the legal system allowed workers…

I wonder if even that would work.

I’m gonna go with dcgirl’s rhetoric. There’s already been a bit of an uproar recently over restaurant wages and tipping practices, and this is a whole other industry that can be lumped in there. There are a lot of workers affected by this, and I’m presuming a lot of customers who will be more than a bit miffed to…

How about posting worker-friendly salons?

You can also contact your elected representatives and demand that the government protect these workers. That isn’t a quick fix, but it is a necessary step.

Actually, in most places what you are saying is illegal. Your wife should complain to the appropriate regulatory bodies. It probably will have minimal effect but that might change if everyone did it.

Apparently the pricing is really that different. I pay $45 for a regular and $90 for a gel mani/pedi in Los Angeles... apparently $20 for a regular mani pedi is the norm?? Not sure.

Actually, I think yes, lots of people do think it’s the solution. Tipping well is great but you are buying piece mind. Don’t pretend you haven’t bought in if you don’t act for change.

You can demand political change, you can refuse to patronize salons that engage in this kind of fuckery. You say grand standing, I saw organize for change.

This is insane. Salon jobs are not generally hourly wage jobs and they sure as hell aren’t sub minimum wage jobs. You either rent a station or work commission. A bad commission split is one where the house takes more than half, but I have never seen it worse than 60% house 40% employee, with employee keeping all tips.

Or that we require the enforcement of labor laws so people are paid just wages. Tipping is a hugely problematic system that does not improve worker treatment. Every evaluation of tipping indicates it’s racist and sexist as hell for workers and encourages racist and sexist treatment of customers.

The writing staff really needs to ease up with the indiscriminate Rihanna love. First y’all fawn all over her quinceanera/toilet cozy Grammy dress, and now this? At this point, you’re not even her imaginary friends. You’re just her yes men.

In my ‘thought exercise’, Dan is the bottom.

What a future.

They couldn’t fit her full name into a tweet. Welcome Charlotte Elizabeth Diana Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone.

Maybe it’s Maybelline