One More Reason to Dislike Mass. AG Martha Coakley: Making it Harder For Independent Contractors to Just Do Their Jobs

The Daily Caller has a new contributor, Pussy Per Se, a Massachusetts-based stripper who tells a tale of workplace harassment of the very worst sort:

I built a good business. I was an independent contractor, working at half a dozen clubs, making good money. It was a perfect job for a single mom. I could arrange my schedule around my son's, and could babysit my granddaughter. I was available for in-school events. I might work a single club for weeks, or divide my time between two or three. Or I might take a break to go on a road trip with another dancer, reaping the benefit of being "new girls" at a distant club.

The legislature of Massachusetts, attorney general Martha Coakley, and some savvy lawyers have now put me out of business. It's not that they don't like what I do for a living — dancing naked on a stage and giving private dances in a back room. I can keep doing that. What they don't like is that I did all this as an independent contractor. That I was my own boss. Massachusetts much prefers that I work for somebody else. This came about because of a single verdict against a strip club in Chelsea, Mass., and it affects not only every stripper in the state, but could result in putting many small independent contractors, from painters to writers, out of business.

Read more here.

Reason on Martha Coakley here.

Comments

[Crunchbird]

Independent contractor, my ass!

[Jesse James]

She looks a little like my Sandra. Oh how I miss you Sandy… If only you could have gotten that Iron cross tattoo on you cleavage that I asked you for…

[Jesse James]

And the implants, of course.

[Jesse James]

and slapped me around and called me “mein fuhrer” when I was coming like I asked you to. Oh Sandy…

[America's Sweetheart?]

You people are mean.

[Madame DeFarge]

More government oppression of single mothers.

[robc]

More government oppression of single grandmothers.

FTFY.

[Little Red Riding Hood]

Grandma, what big eyes you have! Grandma what big ti…..

[adam]

I’m a little skeptical- usually you have to meet certain test to be an independent contractor- that’s nothing new. One of the tests is that you use your own facilities to provide the service. The status is often used to get around taxes and other employment laws. Mass is probably trying to crack down on that.

[Ska]

Your own facilities? That’s not true. What about per diem bookkeepers that work at their client’s office, or IT consultants?

The most important feature to determine independent contractor vs. employee is who makes the management decisions regarding your work. If you (as the IC/employee in question) control how you perform the work, you’re more likely an independent contractor.

Other tests are if you have set wages, benefits, etc. paid by the hirer (if you do you’re most likely an employee), and who pays for the business aspects of the employee (do you have your own business admin. costs, or does the hirer pay for them?).

[Russ]

According to her, she’s paying “rent” in the form of a tip out. This is a negotiated rate. She controls where she dances, how she does her work, and she has the ability to suffer a financial loss. All IC indicators according to IRS and U.S. Dept. of Labor.

If strippers can’t be independent contractors because where they work is a strip club, the lawyers are going to have a field day with accountants who fill in for other accountants, builders who work on (gasp) construction sites, and others. The location argument is pure crap, and if it’s MA-specific, it should be fought tooth-and-nail.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait! Don’t let government regulations ruin your day! Leave the overly regulated business of stripping and enter the brave unregulated world of prostitution!

Talk about unintended consequences.

[adam]

I realize it’s a multi-part test.

[Kolohe]

No love for the witchhuntin’ innocent people jailin’ failed Mass Senate candidate, but that prong two makes it hard to rule any other way.

Mass should change its law (not holding my breath), but until then, this is the inevitable result.

[alan]

Other witches refer to Coakley as ‘traitor!’.

[SugarFree]

It was a perfect job for a single mom. I could arrange my schedule around my son’s, and could babysit my granddaughter.

This is why I don’t go to strip clubs.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

You don’t support single moms?

[SugarFree]

As long as they have their clothes on. It’s a purely personal prejudice. I’m not down with mothers.

[dbcooper]

SF’s just covering ’cause he pays extra to have a 40yo like that to rub his face in her chest and tell him what a smart boy he is. It’s when she asks him if he’s been regular that it gets dirty.

[SugarFree]

YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER TELL!

Next time I’m across the pond, I’m going to kick you in whatever you call the taint.

[dbcooper]

What actually is a taint? Is it the perineum? The ass neck?

[Warty]

‘T’ain’t ass and ‘t’ain’t balls, you limey fucking prick.

[SugarFree]

Perineum. Warty helpfully explains the etymology.

Do Americans have ass-necks? Is this a phenomenon of the HHS?

[Warty]

I hate when guys with neck-asses don’t cover them up with tape. Although it is a little awesome when they hock a loogie through the neckhole.

[dbcooper]

Cancer Kazoo. Excellent.

[Rewrite]

I guess you missed the MILF fad?

[SugarFree]

When I find one that I’d like to, you’ll be the first to know.

[Art-P.O.G.]

So this is why you and wifey don’t have kids yet?

[SugarFree]

Yup. Not going to do that to my poor wife. She doesn’t want any, as is.

[prolefeed]

It’s pronounced mmmmmmm-MILFs!

I’d totally do her.

[John]

I am sure some of the dancers at the places he frequents are single dads. So it is not like he is not doing his share to support single parents.

[Fluffy]

Oooooooo! Snap!

[Bradley]

my granddaughter

I feel… conflicted

[She's got a nice rack]

No conflict at a all here – it hit that in an eye blink.

[John]

And the granddaughter thing kind of makes it kinky.

[Xeones]

I wonder how many times Epi’s been to the champagne room with her.

[domoarrigato]

by the looks of her, she has been taken to the champagne room quite a few times. Theres a sucker born ever minute.

[Every Wife In America]

Te he he he

He paid up front as opposed to paying on the installment plan?

[SugarFree]

If she’s not crying, Epi doesn’t care.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

It was a perfect job for a single mom.

One left a turkey baster on the stage, which he knew I needed for Thanksgiving.

Protip: If you have to rely on the charity of others to have a turkey baster for Thanksgiving, you’re not working the “perfect job”.

[SugarFree]

Protip: Don’t baste a turkey. The constant opening of the oven lengthens cooking time and makes the bird far drier than any amount of basting can compensate for.

[domoarrigato]

word: use a turkey bag. it self bastes the bird, requires no opening of the oven, and shortens cooking time. Or use a rotisserie – which makes better skin, but requires a larger investment.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

I’m from the South. The only cooking method I am familiar with is deep frying.

[John Thacker]

For turkeys, you mean. Surely you’re familiar with boiling as well?

Is it soft? Fry it until it’s crispy.
Is it crispy? Boil it until it’s soft.

[Warty]

Also, make sure you properly brine your turkey, and only cook it to 150 degrees or so (Or is it 160? I forget now). Fuck the FDA and its 170 recommendation.

[SugarFree]

160 so it will carry over to 165 or so. And the FDA actually says 180. Yum.

And even a fried bird benefits from brining.

[prolefeed]

When the leg is loose and can be torn off the bird, it’s done.

[hurly buehrle]

I prefer to wrap the thing in buttered foil for the first 2 hours, cooking it face-down.

[The Gobbler]

It must be difficult cooking when you’re lying face down, hurly buehrle.

[hurly buehrle]

Sorry that it wasn’t clear I was referring to a turkey. 🙂

[Pro Libertate]

Brining, people.

[just sayin']

how did a discussion about strippers turn into a turkey cooking thread? do you people have no sack?

[SugarFree]

After the turkey is warm, you fuck it. Giblets dripping off your cock, and the Pope’s nose dowsing your anus.

Happy now, one-track?

[just sayin']

Much better, I’ll be back in 3-5 minutes.

[just sayin']

and, I’m back – much more relaxed – thanks.

[just sayin']

10 seconds later

[Pro Libertate]

Breasts, turkey breasts. All connected.

[R C Dean]

Never. Ever. Cook a turkey, using any method, at all, without brining it first.

[Almanian]

So we brine the MILF’s grandchildren, deep fry her breasts, get a lap dance from her mom, and…

Wait, I’m lost.

[Dane Cook]

I thought the purpose of a strip club was to get as far away from family life as you can.

[Mike]

“A mother-daughter team charges a premium to take them both into the champagne room. (Actually, a 30-something stepmom and her 20-something stepdaughter.)”

I call deceptive advertising!

[Grob]

I would do her on her plastic covered couch.

[Xeones]

Protip: Don’t baste a turkey. The constant opening of the oven lengthens cooking time and makes the bird far drier than any amount of basting can compensate for.

Exactly. Brine your bird beforehand, it is the true path to turkey happiness.

[The Gobbler]

You folks have mentioned brining meats before. Can you provide more detail? thanks in advance.

[SugarFree]

The Basics

While you can brine most any meat, I usually only fool with poultry. Unless it’s pork that will be smoked for a very long time.

You might also like to start with Dry Brining.

[mr simple]

Except for a brief mention in passing, I don’t see how Martha Coakley was deviously involved in this. Not that I want to defend her. It just seems like this problem is being made by some rent seeking individuals.

Also, Why does there need to be a law about this. It seems like all of these problems could go away with a simple contract. Then both parties would know what’s expected of them and where they stand. I suppose that’s too easy and not lucrative enough for the government.

[mr simple]

Why am I spam?

[Almanian]

you are what you eat – just sayin’

[?]

If you have to rely on the charity of others to have a turkey baster for Thanksgiving, you’re not working the “perfect job”.

Forest for the trees, Economic Man. Some guy put a turkey baster on a stage under a naked old lady. That is, no contest, the most perfect thing that has ever happened. Ever.

[just sayin']

except if he had put said baster in the naked old lady.

[mr simple]

Now it works. I was saying, except for the brief mention of her in passing, I don’t see how Martha Coakley is deviously involved in this. Not that I want to defend her, it just looks like all the trouble is being caused by a few rent seeking individuals.

Also, why does there need to be a law about this? It seems to me like all of these problems could be solved by a simple contract. Then both parties would know where they stand and what’s expected of them. I suppose that’s too easy and not lucrative enough for the government.

[spam filter]

was doing you a favor.

[the]

spam filter was doing you a favor

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I was available for in-school events…

I suppose this was for a Health Class unit on sex ed?

Why didn’t my school use such innovative techniques?

[SugarFree]

Is crying while masturbating really something that needs to be taught? Because that’s all the “moves” he’s got.

Well… that and looking the other way while a rotating crew of drinking buddies knock up your wife behind your back because worrying over the inherent power inequalities created by 10,000 years of patriarchal domination has made you limp-terrifyied of approaching “The Alter of the Goddess.”

[SugarFree]

Stupid wrong thread.

[Warty]

No, it worked rather nicely.

[Pip]

No alt-text, but I sure enjoyed looking for one.

[Libertymike]

How about some savy lawyers challenging the constitutionality of the statute? Does anybody think that there is a lawyer in Massachusetts who would have the fortitude to step up and do what has to be done?

[Pro Libertate]

Do you think she insures her chest?

[P Brooks]

All your paychecks, et c….

[Masshole]

Hey, we awl need a W-fackin-2 heah in Taxa-fackin-chusetts! She needs a bawss and a fackin union like the rest of us. Go Mahther Coakley! Yankees sack! Yankees sack!

[P Brooks]

Once the strippers get a union, you’ll be able to go see GREAT-grandmothers worming nekkid (except for the Depends, of course) across the stage.

Down with age-ist, beauty-ist patriarchal oppression! Solidarity, sisters!

[Dane Cook]

I flipped through cable one night a decade ago. There was a documentary on the unionization of a strip club. It was the most sublimely depressing thing I have ever seen in my life. Anti-life to the extreme. Those women and union activist were like specters in Hell stomping on the very flame of joy and extinguishing it.

[P Brooks]

Stupid wrong thread.

Phew.

[Lamar]

The Mass law seems to make it very difficult for consultants unless they have their own corporation. Usually they do, but maybe its time to create a corporate entity specifically tailored to strippers?

[NeonCat]

I’m sure the annual report would be something to see.

[Libertymike]

That might not be of too much help. In Amero v. Townsend Oil Company, a Masachusetts Superior Court judge held thata fuel delivery independent contractor was an employee under the independent contractor statute notwithstanding the fact that the individual in question had established a corporation for the purpose of providng his services to the oil delivery company.

Citation: 2008 WL 6336138 (Mass. Super. 2008)

[Lamar]

So a utility company that hires an accountant to assist its accounting department in preparation for a rate request is actually hiring a new employee?

[Libertymike]

Yes. It just goes to show you how th application of the law produces some absurd results.

[Jennifer]

I feel slimy and dirty for saying this, but: given the reality of how strip clubs operate, it really IS bullshit to say they/we are independent contractors. It’s like an ordinary office job in that the dancer is given set hours to work, and some clubs even have anti-moonlighting rules (if you work here, you can’t work for the competition down the road) … in other words, dancers are ordinary employees in every unpleasant sense of the word, no freedom to set your hours or whatnot, and then they become independent contractors only in the sense of not having what security and benefits “employees” get.

That said, without knowing the details of what Massachusetts is doing now, I have little difficulty believe their shiny new “protect the dancers” laws only results in hurting dancers.

The legislature of Massachusetts, attorney general Martha Coakley, and some savvy lawyers have now put me out of business. It’s not that they don’t like what I do for a living ? dancing naked on a stage and giving private dances in a back room.

Wrong, dear — they DO hate it. They really, truly, deeply hate it. And they hate you for doing it, although they tell themselves they have your best interests at heart, when they try to push you away from a job paying $300 a shift and into a job paying $7.50 an hour.

[Libertymike]

The law is hurting a lot of people. Take the textbook publishing industry. Many writers, proofreaders and editors are freelancers who provide their services to textbook publishers. A couple of years ago, both Pearson Education and Macmillan made a decision to stop giving work to massachusetts residents due to the amended independent contractor statute.

The amended law prohibits an individual from contracting to provide her services to another upon an independent contractual basis if the service being provided is within the usual course of business of the latter.

It hurts chauffeurs. The dominant practice in the limo industry has been to compensate drivers as independent contractors. The AG’s office is aggresively targeting limo companies and the plaintiff’s bar is also filing class action lawsuits against the limo companies seeking triple damages and counsel fees for violations of the wage and hour laws.

[Jennifer]

Holy shit! So how does that work — you can only be a copy editor if you actually wear uncomfortable professional clothes and commute to their office and sit in a beige cubicle all day?

One of my jobs these days is a freelance gig editing novels for a publishing company — they email me the manuscripts, I correct them and email them back. It’s a pretty decent gig for a work-at-home, set-your-own-hours thing, but it would be a LOATHSOME job if I had to commute to an office and do it during regular business hours for eight hours at a stretch.

On the other hand, since I am not a Massachusetts resident, perhaps I can pick up some additional gigs with those textbook companies. Hmm; I’ll have to modify some of my job-hunting e-mail alerts.

[Libertymike]

Jennifer, if you google Mass Independent Contractor law is bad you will find on-line petitions to change the law-formulated by arts groups.

This matter has made for some strange bedfellows-what with the Massachusetts chapter of the NFIB, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts being on the same side as some of the arts groups and another group consisting of researchers and research fellows who also oppose the law.

BTW, I do not disagree that some clubs operate as you describe above-but I do know strippers who have and do work for multiple clubs.

[Jennifer]

Oh, sure, I too worked multiples back in the day — but the schedule was “You are expected to work the 7 p.m. shift this Friday, and if you do not show up you’ll be fired same as any employee who doesn’t go to work…” point is, the freedom one would associate with an “independent contractor” did NOT exist for the dancers.

[Zeb]

Someone who hires an independent contractor to work for them can stipulate in the contract that they must show up at a particular time and dismiss them if they do not do so.

[P Brooks]

But Jennifer, it’s for their own good; working the midnight shift at Seven-Eleven (alone) is much safer than being in a room full of slavering perverts.

[Slavering Pervert]

I only go to 7-11 in the wee hours of the night. It’s so much cheaper than paying the cover at Nekid Girls! around the corner.

[P Brooks]

Does this attempt to stamp out independent contractors have anything to do with MassCare, perchance?

[edysi]

If they are employees and not independent contractors, then do the clubs have a cause of action to get the stripper’s lap dance money back? I mean lap dances aren’t tips, under the plantiff’s theory you could say they are services offered by the employees of the club and as such the club would be entitled to that money. (the club sets the price of lap dances in most cases) Some clubs keep detailed records of who goes into the couch dance area and for how many songs. A counter suit would be too funny.

[Ring Jones]

Yeah she looks like a real D-Bag doesnt she!

Lou
http://www.true-anonymity.pro.tc

[R C Dean]

Don’t you mean D-cup, Ring?

[Lamar]

The politically correct term is the generic “D-receptacle”. Oh wait, that sounds dirtier than the others.

[Pro Libertate]

Rackspectacle?

[Lamar]

You mean like boobie bifocals?

[josey]

How many disingenuous laws does it take to spell: we want everyone subject to withholdings?

[The Libertarian Guy]

Democrats supported Coakley, and she acts like a Republican when it comes to strip clubs.

Damned amazing. But not surprising.

[Lamar]

Massachusetts, for all its liberalism, is one of the stuffiest, most uptight places on earth.

[Pro Libertate]

And racist. Don’t forget that.

[Lamar]

I said racist. “Uptight” means white, racist cockbag.

[Masshole]

Hey, fack you! Go Sawx!

[Zeb]

At least they allow strippers to show it all.

[The Ghost of Ted Kennedy]

But they sure love their drunks!

[Dane Cook]

YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER TELL!

Next time I’m across the pond, I’m going to kick you in whatever you call the taint.

Did you say, ‘taint’, bro? You made my day, Sugar Free. I still have a fan!

[prolefeed]

Democrats supported Coakley, and she acts like a Republican when it comes to strip clubs.

Actually, as much as most so-con Republicans would love to shut down strip clubs, I think most would nonetheless be inclined to fight for the right of strippers to be IC rather than employees, since IC’s are the opposite of unionized.

Most Republicans politicians who’ve thought it through would love to make ALL employees IC’s, since that would essentially nullify all the “protect unions” laws on the books.

[alan]

Amen to that.

Strip away the legal definitions that have ‘evolved’ over the past 120 odd years, employment, markets adjust creatively. You would not only accomplish the defanging of the unions, but the ‘stickiness’ of employment pricing that Keynesians complain about would go away over night as markets found creative ways to adapt.

[MCab]

I’d so be her pool boy.

[Bobby]

This supposed strippers article is full of lies. She is probably some club owners play-thing doing him another kind of “favor”. What is wrong with paying a stripper $2.63 an hr ? The stripper still gets to keep all her tips. Miss Pussy also neglects to point out the $45-$100 per night the stripper no longer has to pay the slimy club owners. NOT having to pay those fees adds another 10-20k or more to the strippers yearly income. Not to mention unemployment and work. comp. benefits. I think the article is biased an unfairly paints the wrong picture for those not in the Industry.Suggesting that strippers rights are being taken away by finally giving them some is an out and out lie.