Naked Wage Theft? Hurricane Betty's Dancers Sue Strip Club Over Pay

WORCESTER, MA — As many as 100 former Hurricane Betty's dancers are part of a class action lawsuit against the strip club to recover pay they say the owners took in violation of state wage laws.

The suit was initially filed in July 2020, but a federal judge recently ruled that the dancers' claims are valid and certified them as a class. The case will soon proceed to trial to determine how much the dancers might be owed, according to an attorney representing them.

The crux of the case involves the state minimum wage law, which contains allows service workers who receive tips to be paid a lower minimum wage — but only if that lower wage combined with tips equals the regular minimum wage. The state's tipped wage is now $6.75, but was $4.35 when the dancers who sued were working at the club.

Hurricane Betty's owners hired the dancers as regular hourly employees, not independent contractors, but failed to pay either the $4.35 rate or the mandated minimum wage when including tips, the lawsuit charges.

Howard D’Amico, a Hurricane Betty's attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment. In court filings, the club owners have broadly denied the wage allegations.

Hurricane Betty's — whose slogan is "changing the world, one lap dance at a time" — is owned by an LLC called Jolo Inc., whose manager is Myles O'Grady. According to a deposition, O'Grady's son, Joseph, runs the day-to-day operations.

The dancers at the Southbridge Street club were also told to pool and split their tips, pay "kickback" fees to the club for every shift of between $30 and $60 and share tips with other club employees, like DJs and bouncers, the suit says. And when the dancers performed privately for patrons, the club managers would end up keeping a portion of the revenue, the suit says.

"[A]t no time during the relevant period did defendants pay direct hourly wages to Plaintiffs or the other exotic dancers at the club at an hourly rate at least equal to the Massachusetts Minimum Wage," federal judge Timothy Hillman wrote in a September decision granting summary judgement in favor of the dancers.

Gregg Greenberg, a Maryland attorney representing the Hurricane Betty's dancers, said the case is headed for trial. Right now, attorneys are trying to figure out how many dancers will be involved in the class action.

Greenberg was previously involved in a lawsuit against the Lamplighter strip club along Route 20 in Worcester over a similar wage issue. That case was settled out of court, but lawsuits brought by exotic dancers are common due to a patchwork of labor laws enforced by either federal courts or states, and differences in how club owners extract fees from dancers.

The 2019 case Verma v. 3001 Castor Inc. — concerning a Penthouse-branded club in Philadelphia — ended in a $4.5 million judgement for the dancers. The club classified all of its dancers as independent contractors, but set specific requirements and club fees for only some dancers — a violation of Pennsylvania's minimum wage law, according to the 2019 decision.

Gregg said a dollar amount on the Hurricane Betty's case will be set later once the attorneys figure out how many former dancers may be part of the class. Four former dancers have been named as the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit: Leah Saad, Deanna Gallo, Brittany Duchaine and Sanchere Kelly.

"We make these laws to ensure employees are paid a least at a minimum level, so it's important to make sure employers comply with them," Gregg said.