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On 9/7/11, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled in favor of 80 exotic dancers that they had been misclassified by their employer as "independent contractors" instead of "employees." The strip club, known as "Onyx", classified the dancers as Independent contractors and, as a result did not pay them minimum or overtime wages, did not provide the dancers with any benefits, etc. The Court granted the dancers' motion for summary judgment -- finding that Onyx exercised sufficient control over over the dancers' work environment, determined the dancers' opportunity for profit and loss, such that the dancers were truly "employees" under the federal wage laws. This decision follows a long line of cases finding exotic dancers to be "employees" rather than "independent contractors." Nevertheless, strip club owners continue to misclassify their dancers as independent contractors in order to avoid federal wage obligations.
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