Away from the manicure tables they crash in flophouses packed with bunk beds, or in fetid apartments shared by as many as a dozen strangers. Many spend their days holding hands with women of unimaginable affluence, at salons on Madison Avenue and in Greenwich, Conn. The juxtapositions in nail salon workers’ lives can be jarring. All but three workers, however, had wages withheld in other ways that would be considered illegal, such as never getting overtime. Investigators inspected 29 salons and found 116 wage violations.Īmong the more than 100 workers interviewed by The Times, only about a quarter said they were paid an amount that was the equivalent of New York State’s minimum hourly wage. Last year, the New York State Labor Department, in conjunction with several other agencies, conducted its first nail salon sweep ever - about a month after The Times sent officials there an inquiry regarding their enforcement record with the industry. Lawsuits filed in New York courts allege a long list of abuses: the salon in East Northport, N.Y., where workers said they were paid just $1.50 an hour during a 66-hour workweek the Harlem salon that manicurists said charged them for drinking the water, yet on slow days paid them nothing at all the minichain of Long Island salons whose workers said they were not only underpaid but also kicked as they sat on pedicure stools, and verbally abused.
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