What I would like to find out is if anyone thinks the following is illegal. If so, exactly what type of lawyer should I talk to.
My sister works for a ritzy high dollar hair salon. Full service spa type of place. They have 60 stylists working there.
All of the items below seem odd to me, but thats why I am asking.
Every stylist is charged twenty cents per client to cover the credit card machine fees.
When a stylist uses hair color on a client, the stylist is charged for the color as follows:
$3.80 for the first color, $1.90 for the second color, and $1.90 for the third color. Not all clients get 3 colors every time. A tube of color costs the company $5.00. One tube of color does 2 heads. No they can't keep what they don't use.
All the above charges come off the top of the pay and the remainder is posted on the pay stub as the gross. They are not furnished any type of report that shows what came off the top.
They get paid every 2 weeks. Every pay stub lists the amount of tips the stylist supposedly received. They get a separate document that has the tips broken down by client.
The separate document is what they get their tips paid by. In other words if the sheet for this pay period says $300 then thats what she will see in the bank.
I did a running total for a few years of what the sheet says versus what the pay stub says and here is a sample of what it looks like:
DATE PAYSTUB TIPS ACTUAL PAID TIPS
1-1 to 1-15 439.95 321.44
1-16 to 1-31 439.95 291.50
2-1 to 2-15 521.40 362.25
2-15 to 2-28 521.40 401.12
3-1 to 3-15 488.29 275.10
3-15 to 3-31 488.29 307.33
As you can see, every 2 weeks their number never changes. It is always this way. I have crunched numbers until I was blue in the face trying to figure out where they come up with the pay stub tip numbers but can not.
On top of these numbers, the over taxation is another issue I would think?
There are many other things that I could list but will spare everyone.
Why doesn't she go work elsewhere? She has medical issues and is tied to the job for the health insurance. She's been there 15+ years and still gets 1 week vacation.
I'm just looking for advice. Many of these girls are afraid to confront the employer for fear of losing their job. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

