Lawsuit: Exotic dancer says she, others never received a wage at Fort Worth strip club

A woman identified as Precious Jones worked for about a year as an exotic dancer at Corsets Cabaret, a club in west Fort Worth described as a bikini bar with no cover charge and weekly drink specials.

But, Jones says in a lawsuit, the club didn’t pay her a legal minimum wage to dance for customers — or any hourly wage at all. She claims she had to pay the club.

Between about June 2018 through June 2019, the lawsuit states, Jones served clientele at the adult business but was considered an “independent contractor,” which turned out to be an important distinction. As an independent contractor, Jones alleges she had to pay to “lease” the premises so she could dance for the opportunity to earn tips. That alone was her income, the suit says.

Even those funds, however, didn’t all stay in her pocket, according to the lawsuit. Jones’ attorney, Gabriel Assaad of the Houston-based Kennedy Hodges LLP, wrote she was forced to share her tips with employees who don’t normally receive them, such as DJs.

The federal complaint, which includes an unnamed number of current and former Corsets Cabaret dancers who plan to sign on, paints a pattern of management at the club illegally failing to compensate workers who are essential to the self-described bikini bar.

Each week, the club on Camp Bowie West Boulevard highlights its dancers on its Facebook page, sharing pictures of the women in lingerie and often referring to them as Corsets cuties.

“Defendants’ practice of failing to pay employees wages violates the (Fair Labor Standards Act) minimum wage provision,” Assaad wrote in the suit. “Defendants’ practice of charging house fees and dividing tips also violates federal law because it impermissibly passes the cost of doing business onto the employees of the club.”

Jones, a Dallas resident, and the other dancers are seeking damages including legal wages for the hours they worked and a sum of funds that represents the cash they paid to the club and the tips they gave up. The complaint was filed Friday in a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth.

The defendants in the suit include Fred’s Bluelight Investments Inc. — the corporation that operates Corsets Cabaret — as well as the club itself, its president James Vick and its vice president Larry Wangler. Multiple messages left at Corset Cabaret went unanswered by Thursday morning.

Kennedy Hodges LLP staff who worked on the case weren’t available for comment by deadline. But David Hodges, one of the partners of the firm, said courts across the country have taken on cases like this and the vast majority of them end in a ruling “that dancers are typically employees instead of independent contractors.”

“The clubs are just using this,” he said, “as a way to maximize their profits and not pay the dancers any wages.”

Rick’s Cabaret in Houston, which is now closed, was accused in 2012 of forcing its employees to pay a nightly fee in order to work. In 2015, the company that owns the club, RCI Hospitality Holdings, settled a $15 million class action lawsuit with dancers who claimed management retained their wages because they were classified as independent contractors.

Rick’s Cabaret also has a location in Fort Worth.

Jones’ lawsuit makes a point of describing Corsets Cabaret as an employer bound to the legal requirements of the FLSA, which defines an employer as “any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee.” And the dancers, the lawsuit states, are employees, applying for their jobs, getting hired and understanding they’re to follow all company rules.

Some of those rules, though, went beyond what’s typically expected of employed workers, according to the lawsuit. That includes mandating dancers to pay “house fees” or “rental fees” to dance; increasing that fee if dancers showed up after 10 p.m.; and forcing dancers to pay a $10 fee to the DJ and “housemom” on their way out of the club.

Additionally, according to the lawsuit, dancers at the club are required to purchase their uniforms and also must wear a shoe with a high heel.

“If the dancers did not follow the club rules ... they did not get the opportunity to dance and earn money,” Assaad wrote in the suit.

The business unilaterally made the decision it would consider dancers independent contractors and not pay them a wage, the lawsuit states.

Jones and the other class members each reported that on at least one night they made less money than they paid to the club.

Corsets Cabaret was previously in the spotlight in August 2018, when 31-year-old Henry Lee was shot and killed at the club. Three men were later arrested and charged with murder in connection with the incident.

This story was originally published August 8, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Lawsuit: Exotic dancer says she, others never received a wage at Fort Worth strip club."