This May, The New York Times (Times) published a shocking report on investigations that it conducted on New York City’s nail salon industry. Nail salon technicians were found to be the subjects of very frequent wage violations and prolonged exposure to hazardous chemicals. Because the industry commonly employs immigrants, both legal and illegal, workers have been unaware that their employer’s actions were unlawful, or were too frightened to report the violations to authorities. Immediately after the report was released, New York’s Governor Cuomo proposed legislation, which was passed last month, to address the issues.
The Times’s report uncovered an extraordinary frequency of wage violations against nail technicians. Employers can sometimes be relieved of paying a worker the normal minimum wage if the employee regularly receives tips, as nail technicians often do. Nonetheless, whenever the sum of wages and tips amounts to less than what the employee would earn under the minimum wage, the employer is required to pay the difference. Many of the technicians interviewed by the Times reported working more than ten hours each day, but coming home with less than $60. These workers clearly were not paid the $8.75 minimum wage required by New York State law.
In addition to the abysmal compensation that some nail salons provide to workers, they also frequently charge workers a fee to obtain a job. After paying the typical “training fee” of $100, a technician is then subject to a trial period in which no wages are paid until the worker has proven his or her worth. Some technicians described working in these training periods for weeks, or even months, without pay.
An overwhelming number of workers in these salons are immigrants, many of which are undocumented. It can be difficult for Chinese or Korean employees to understand their rights under New York law without an interpreter. The language barrier also makes it difficult for immigrants to seek employment outside of the nail industry. Undocumented workers are reluctant to notify a government agency that their employers are routinely violating wage and overtime laws. For these reasons, most violations against nail technicians have gone uncovered.
Nail technicians often suffer from respiratory and reproductive diseases from inhaling hazardous fumes, produced by many cosmetic products. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 17 chemicals in nail products that are harmful to the human respiratory tract. Some of the chemicals have been shown to cause reproductive or birth defects and have been banned from other nations, including the European Union. Workers have not benefited from any regulatory protection, except for a recommendation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that technicians wear gloves and masks at work.
The New York State Assembly has passed new legislation that would revolutionize the industry. Governor Cuomo announced that there will be an increased number of investigations of salons. The new law would create criminal penalties, including jail time, for operating a nail salon without a license. Employees who are training, but have not yet been licensed as technicians, would need to be paid by their employer. Salons that refuse to give backpay for their violations can be shut down. To prevent a scheme in which employers claim to be unable to provide backpay, all nail salons in New York are now required to be bonded. To protect workers from chemicals, the New York legislation requires all nail salons to offer gloves and masks to its employees.