I'm feeling so vindicated right now. I worked at Pleasures from 2016-2018 and lost thousands of dollars from them in lost wages, including being forced to pay $200 because I wanted to take the day off for my birthday but because it was the same day as their anniversary party, I wasn't "allowed" to take the day off unless I paid the dock fee regardless of giving advanced notice. I had taken a trip to Colorado for my birthday in 2017 and when I got back I paid my dock in all singles just because.

In 2018 I was hospitalized for a mental health crisis and was admitted to the hospital for 5 days. I was working day shift at the time, and they had a problem with dancers not showing up on Mondays because of how little money we made on average and still had to pay at least $25 just to be able to work even if we didn't make anything. Their solution was a mandatory dock of $200 for missing a Monday if you were scheduled — no excuses. I was stuck in the hospital and couldn't leave because of my crisis. They didn't care and I still had to pay $200 to go back to work. I didn't even HAVE $200 at the time and so I needed to borrow the money from my dad.

This doesn't account for at least a dozen other times where I needed to pay $100 to miss any other day of work, or to be able to leave even 30 minutes early if I wasn't feeling well or there was something going on with my kids.

I put up with all of this because I took their word for it. It's so normalized out there and nobody bats an eye at this shit. I had no clue that this was such a big deal that now the state is getting involved. When I heard that P-Town was being investigated I was under the impression that it was for drugs and prostitution like jezebels a couple years before I started dancing. I'm honestly shocked that they've been able to get away with this for so long.

I emailed the DOL with some basic information to see about getting my foot in the door in the possible event of a payout. If I hear anything back, I will keep the sub updated.