Why an Exotic Dancer Is (Financially) Just Like Your Hairdresser
By: Ainslie Caswell
Tags: Women, Money, Jobs, Sex Work, Freelancing

After we get our 50/50 split with the club, our earnings are further depleted. Tip-out in the service industry is standard, and anyone who had to bust their ass in a restaurant job knows what this is. You either ran around cleaning dirty tables at a restaurant, and were the happy recipient of the waitstaff’s castoff dollar bills at the end of the night, or you were the bitter waitress forced to give the bus staff (and the hostess, and the bartender, and the food runner, and maybe even the manager and cook if you worked for a really sketchy place) around 2 percent of your sales out of your hard-earned tip money.

How much do strippers tip out?

My highest tip-out as a stripper was $700.

Part 2: How Strippers Get Tipped and Who They Are Tipping

Unlike tips to restaurant employees (who are paid sub-minimum wages in 43 out of the 50 US states), tips do not make up the bulk of strippers’ income. Tips are, however, the only money that you could truly say is ours and ours alone.

I received the most tips from customers after I had the “are you a contractor?” conversation with them and explained that the club was splitting dance fees with me. Sometimes, even without that conversation, men would just open their wallets and feel the need to tip me. That cash, like the money made on stage, was always mine to keep, and no one inside the club had any claim to it.

Tips are the only money that is ours and ours alone.

I worked with many dancers who had very strong opinions about customers giving them tips. Some were of the opinion that tipping should happen at the conclusion of every dance exchange, regardless of the situation or total cost, even though we were already being paid for the dance outright. I never shared this opinion, as I still think tips are always optional. The one exception being when I demanded a tip from a man who was so rough with me during a dance that, while bouncing me on his knee like a newborn baby, I was briefly airborne. The only reason I didn’t fall was because his fingers were fiercely digging into my thighs, and he made damn sure my pelvic bone made violent connection with his leg on my way back down. That guy owed me everything he had in his wallet.

Tips from customer to dancer could shift and change our income significantly, but I always took it as a nice surprise rather than expected income. Or, even more appropriately, it could serve as a replacement for the tip-out that I was obligated to pass on to the staff who supported me, which was not optional.

If restaurant servers are tipping out on sales numbers, then it should make sense that strippers are tipping out on dance numbers. In the Los Angeles strip clubs where I worked, it was customary to tip out to your support staff $1 per dance. At the height of the 2008 recession, a good daytime shift would see me doing 15 dances, and a great night shift would see me doing 40+. (Just for context, veteran strippers thought those numbers were dismal.)

The tip out situation on day shift vs. night shift was extremely different, as you had around double the staff on the floor. Day shift: 1 DJ, 1 bartender, 1 manager, 0 bouncers. Night shift: 1 DJ, 2 bartenders, 2 bouncers, 1 manager. All of these people would earmark $1 per dance out of your half of your dance money, so your tip out doubles if you choose to work a night shift.

Treating your support staff well pays you back in spades, and that didn’t necessarily mean I had to over tip. It just meant I had to be reliable and steady. My first club had several high-roller customers who, of course, had the freedom to choose which girls they spent time with. However, the bouncing staff would help steer certain dancers in their direction, or make phone calls to off-duty dancers if those high roller customers suddenly walked in the door. The dancers they weren’t doing any favors for: the skimpy and unreliable tippers.

I made a point to tip $1 per dance no matter what. Even if I worked a day shift where I did three dances, I walked around and gave the each staff member three dollars. Sometimes, they would wave me away. “Get me next time.” I’d often make them take it, because I’d claim I’d forget to catch up with them next time (highly likely). But just making the effort was something they took notice of, and it was enough. They also took notice of girls who considered ten dances a “bad day,” and would slink out the back without tipping anyone.

Treating your support staff well pays you back in spades.

On one particular night where I found myself with an infamous over-tipping high roller, I was deciding what to do about my tip out. I had done upwards of 80 dances since he had kept me for so long in the booth, and I’d been with other customers as well. There was an extra bouncer on the floor, which gave me seven staff people to tip out to, which was a lot.

I could give them all $80, the logistics of which would require me to get the manager to break up a bunch of my monetary dealings (the mess of bills and OIU chips I had from credit card transactions was insane). Or I could toss them all $100 IOU chips, which served as real money inside the club. Was tipping out an extra $160 worth showing the staff that I appreciate the services they provide, and that keeping me in mind for future Good Customers is in their best interest? Will that money come back around to me?

Sure it is, and yes it will.

That was the night I tipped out $700.