Onyx refers to herself as The Stripper Queen of Canada. She is an exotic dancer who has been working across Canada for over 15 years. Among a long list of titles, Onyx is a two-time winner of Miss Nude Canada and also holds the title of Miss Burlesque North America. Yet despite being one of the best in the industry, Onyx has to fight for what most of us see as basic human rights.
The term ‘independent contractor’ isn’t as flexible as it sounds. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if the word ‘independent’ isn't a signifier of the worker’s freedom and flexibility, but rather a signifier of the proprietor’s independence from liability.
Through jobs within the gig economy, we’re seeing more and more that being an independent contractor tends to leave workers with limited protections and almost no financial stability. But an independent contractor status can be especially dangerous within an industry that has a long history of criminalization.
“Exotic entertainment is a legal profession in Canada, but we are still met with scorn, judgment, and abuse that many of us are not in a position to talk about, unless we want to risk our income. There is no whistle blowers act for female exotic dancers, and often no legal recourse when faced with violations of our basic human rights.”
The above paragraph is taken directly out of Onyx’s petition, which demands action against the oppression of exotic dancers in strip clubs across Alberta.
Deductions
Onyx’s Instagram page is flooded with accounts of gross mistreatment within the industry. One example of this is the deductions, which can be significant. In the petition, Onyx details the amounts that are standardly deducted from her paycheques. The numbers below are the deductions she would receive on her cheques from dancing at E2 clubs. E2 clubs are a chain of strip clubs across Edmonton, Grand Prairie, and Fort McMurray. Most of the clubs in Alberta are E2 clubs.
3% - Liability
4% - Socan
15% - Independent Artists (a.k.a agency fee)
.8% - GST for Independent Artists
$47.00 - Promo (clubs take photos of the dancers, put their logo on it, and then require dancers to buy the images)
$150.00 - Rent (living conditions that have been described by Onyx as “unsafe and filthy,” which dancers are required to pay for whether they use them or not)
A total of 56% deductions from gross income.
These deductions do not include income tax, EI, or CPP. It’s worth noting that Socan refers to music licensing, meaning strippers are essentially paying for the club’s music license. It is also worth noting that Onyx has her own Socan license, but that doesn’t stop the clubs from deducting the fee from her paycheque.
In an Instagram story saved to her highlights, Onyx shares a screenshot of her pay stub from Diamonds, an E2 club in Grand Prairie. The pay stub shows Onyx worked eight shows at $75/show for a gross income of $600 total. The pay stub also details a host of deductions including promotional images (which in some cases, Onyx never received), rent (which Onyx did not use and was unable to opt out of), and pop (which Onyx did not drink). All those deductions netted her a grand total of $264.50...for eight nights of work.
“For us to work, it is industry standard that we remain contractors. Never employees. This means that many of the labour laws in Alberta and other provinces do not apply to us. We are in a position to be taken advantage of by employers. And you better believe that’s exactly what happens.”
As mentioned by Onyx, it is industry standard in Alberta to hire strippers as independent contractors. However, there is no freedom associated with being ‘independent.’
“They pretty much dictate what we wear, how to look, the time that we have to be there, [how long we have to stay], and how many dances we need to sell,” says Onyx.
Fines and quotas
When Onyx began speaking out about this mistreatment, many strippers across Alberta came forward with their stories. All testimonials are anonymous, but below are some of the stories that highlight the deductions and arbitrary fines faced by dancers in E2 clubs.
“I worked in Alberta for one month and couldn’t get over all the fees I had to pay...It was insane. Felt like I was getting robbed every night.”
“One missed night of work lands a girl with $300+ in fines.”
“You work in fear of fines or no work.”
This continues to happen because of the arbitrary nature of contracting work, and the complete lack of care and protection for anyone within an arms length of the sex work industry.
In the contracts dancers are required to sign, open-ended language is used to cover the club, and keep dancers vulnerable. Below is an excerpt from an E2 club contract.
“Failure to appear at the above times will result in a reduction of gross compensation in an amount determined by the club.”
“Once you sign that contract, you sign away your life,” says Onyx. “They don’t even give you a copy. I had to steal mine.”
It’s worth noting once again that while these contracts are ludicrous, E2 clubs have essentially monopolized the industry in Alberta. So if you’re not signing an E2 club contract, there’s a good chance you’re not working.
E2 clubs also impose a quota on strippers, meaning they are required to sell a certain number of dances, or risk getting fined.
Onyx recalls working in Ontario, where there were no quotas, then coming to Alberta and being told she needs to sell 40 dances per week (at double the rate the clubs in Ontario were charging). Onyx would soon discover that meeting the quota was not even enough to safeguard her from fines.
“I remember when I was working at Diamonds in Edmonton, and I finished my quota, and they still fined me,” says Onyx. “I was absolutely livid.” When asked why she was fined, she was told “you didn’t do enough.”
Onyx recalls once being fined $800 at Showgirls for not showing up for a Sunday shift, despite giving a week’s notice and having someone cover for her. “I found another girl to cover my shift, and she was going to pick up my paycheque,” said Onyx. “She picked it up and it was $25.16 for the whole week.”
Due to the relationship that Onyx’s previous agency, Independent Artists, has with the E2 clubs, and the monopoly that E2 clubs have, strippers that speak out about the exploitation in the industry are essentially blacklisted.
Not only did Independent Artists fire Onyx after speaking out, but the agency told clubs not to hire her, and have told other dancers not to work with her.
To say that strippers in Alberta are completely unprotected is an understatement, and if you’re a Black stripper, it’s even more challenging, but more on the Black Girl Quota another day.
Currently, Onyx’s petition has more than 7,500 signatures. The petition is being sent to Maryam Mosef from the Department for Women and Gender Equality as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The demands of the petition are stated below.
“We demand that a quota for dances, promo fees and Socan costs should be abolished. We demand that strippers should not have to pay for places we don’t stay in. Finally, all women are equal. There should not be a cap on how many POC strippers are allowed to work in a club.”