Fair wages…or not…

Things have kind of blown up at The Shisha Lounge.  They were going so well!  We were getting more shows.  We were starting to get the word out there.  Advertising was still slow, but I was doing what I could.  Then what happens?  Everything falls apart.

At my last show I had just negotiated two more shows for this month.  It wasn’t much, but I really could have used the additional $40.  On top of that, even $5 in tips each night would be a bonus.  It would be something to help out around here.  Honestly, I probably won’t be wanted to dance there in a month or two anyway because I’m pregnant.  There’s a good chance other people won’t want to see me dancing with my big pregnant belly.  Chances are I’d be done by the time I was halfway through at the best, even though I’d be happy to dance right up until my due date.  The extra money would really help right now.

However, there was a local dancer who came in, thumping about what she thought a fair wage would be and she knows so much better than we do.  If the Shisha Lounge wouldn’t pay her $40 per set, she wasn’t dancing there.  We should do the same.  How could we go in there asking for sub-standard wages?  What were we thinking?  We must get the standards set high in this area and we have to do it now!

Well, here’s how things turned out.  I asked for higher wages, as did the other dancer.  The third dancer gave her rates.  From the sounds of it, the Shisha Lounge isn’t going to be having the new dancer in as part of their shows.  It’s her loss, really, since she’s the one who insisted.  Wendy, the girl from The Shisha Lounge, has decided that they can’t afford to have all the shows they’ve been having if they’re going to be paying us all $40 per show.  She’s decided to cancel the next two upcoming shows and is only going to be having shows on the second Saturday of every month.  She’s also going to be cutting back and only having one dancer each night.  She’s offered to switch back and forth between Sarah and I.  While that’s all well and good, if there’s only one dancer, I’m probably going to have to quit sooner because of the pregnancy belly.  It’s unfortunately not socially acceptable to show a pregnant belly this day and age.  On top of that, it means I only get paid every other month.  Which means that depending on the rotation, I may only get $40 before I have to drop it.  At best, provided she doesn’t want to drop me because of the pregnancy thing, that gives me three to four months of $40, which equates to not even enough to be considered worthwhile.  I’m also losing out on advertising and exposure because I’m not going to be there as often.  All in all, there’s no way I win in this.  Nor does the dance community.  After all, having a belly dancer once a month doesn’t exactly encourage the community to grow, nor does it increase the interest or publicity of belly dance.  Since that’s the ONLY venue in town right now, it kind of leaves limited options as to where to go for exposure.  In the end, everyone loses.

So effectively we all got screwed over because of fair wages….

~*~Rave~*~