Exotic Dancer, Bartender Suing LI Strip Club For Wage Theft

FARMINGDALE, NY — An exotic dancer and bartender are both suing Mirage Gentlemen's Lounge, an adult entertainment club in Farmingdale, for failure to pay their wages. 101-109 Cafe Inc., which owns and operates Mirage, and Daria Nalotoff, who the dancer and bartender said employed them, are also being sued, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Paula Reyes worked at Mirage — at 101 Route 109 in Farmingdale — as an exotic dancer from June 2017 through May 2019, where she danced for the lounge's customers about five days a week, according to court documents. Reyes said she worked Wednesday through Sunday from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. She claims she received no pay from Mirage for her services, and that she wasn't allowed an uninterrupted half hour to eat, the lawsuit says.

Regine Brinson worked at Mirage as a bartender three to four days a week and waitress once a week from September 2016 through December 2017, according to court documents. As a bartender, she worked from 7 p.m. to around 4:30 a.m. and was paid shift pay of $40 per night, while as a waitress, she worked from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. and was paid $60 per shift, according to court documents. Like Reyes, Brinson wasn't allowed an uninterrupted 30 minutes for meals, the lawsuit says.

Raymond Nardo, the lawyer of both Reyes and Brinson, told Patch that Brinson was paid by the shift rather than an hourly minimum wage.

"[The defendants] are required to pay a minimum wage for all hours worked," Nardo said. "Instead, in this case, they paid [Brinson] a shift pay, which was below minimum wage."

Reyes did not receive any hourly pay, Nardo said.

The lawsuit seeks to make the company pay Reyes her full wage at $10 per hour for all hours worked from June 2017 through Dec. 30, 2017, $11 per hour between Dec. 31, 2017 and Dec. 30, 2018, and $12 per hour between Dec. 31, 2018 and May 30, 2019, as Reyes wasn't paid her wage for all her hours worked, according to the court documents. Reyes claims in the lawsuit that Mirage required her to pay a $60 house fee each night at work.

Brinson's lawsuit seeks to make the company pay her her full wage of $9 per hour for all hours worked through Dec. 30, 2016, and $10 per hour for all hours worked from Dec. 31, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2017, as she was paid by shift rather than hourly minimum wage, according to the court documents.

"The law requires every non-exempt employee to be paid at least a minimum wage," Nardo said. "The fact that you may receive tips does not mean that the employer doesn’t have to pay a minimum wage. In both these cases, these employees were not being paid minimum wage by Mirage."

Mirage declined to comment.