Halonna Gilbert
Professor Keeble
English 201 A
17th February 2016
The Price of Nice Nails Summary
The price of nice nails may come as a shocker as the wages of the current nail salons has not changed since the 1990s for a reason. The salons are most commonly found on the streets of New York City and the competition of these Korean owned shops has been increasing. The price of low trendy nails has been the same but many shop owners display their salons as if you are looking through the glass of a Holiday window, which is far from the truth. Many manicurists in the nail salons are undocumented and know very little English, one of the few available jobs are at nail salons. Every beginning has to pay a training fee of $100, and even when they are on the floor working on customers, they are still not allowed to get paid until their boss says they are experienced enough to receive it. It is also common for beginner manicurist to work 12 hours a day for $34, more advanced manicurist receiver up to $70 or $80 per day. Even as they move up in this industry it is far from luxurious, the plastic particles in the air is very unhealthy and cause problems like miscarriage or even cancer. There is also a lot of discrimination in this industry, the two most common are against Chinese and Ecuadorian workers, they are usually treated unfairly by their Korean boss and get the undesirable customers such as males, and pedicures. The Korean manicurist is treated more fairly as they only work on females and work on manicures. The under paid workers are also forced to pay for spilled polishes, new clothes, and receive pay deductions because of their unhappy clients. There have been many lawyers who have tried to shut down these chains and when they question the owners about their shops they believe they aren’t in the wrong. The shop owners are able to bypass the minimum wage laws by considering it “tipped work” but often the manicurist aren’t tipped at all and never receive a decent wage for the day. It is surprising you me how long this has been going on now. There are too many injustices in this world and if they can be stopped they should be as soon as possible.
Halonna Gilbert
Professor Keeble
English 201 A
17th February 2016
The Price of Nice Nails Summary
The price of nice nails may come as a shocker as the wages of the current nail salons has not changed since the 1990s for a reason. The salons are most commonly found on the streets of New York City and the competition of these Korean owned shops has been increasing. The price of low trendy nails has been the same but many shop owners display their salons as if you are looking through the glass of a Holiday window, which is far from the truth. Many manicurists in the nail salons are undocumented and know very little English, one of the few available jobs are at nail salons. Every beginning has to pay a training fee of $100, and even when they are on the floor working on customers, they are still not allowed to get paid until their boss says they are experienced enough to receive it. It is also common for beginner manicurist to work 12 hours a day for $34, more advanced manicurist receiver up to $70 or $80 per day. Even as they move up in this industry it is far from luxurious, the plastic particles in the air is very unhealthy and cause problems like miscarriage or even cancer. There is also a lot of discrimination in this industry, the two most common are against Chinese and Ecuadorian workers, they are usually treated unfairly by their Korean boss and get the undesirable customers such as males, and pedicures. The Korean manicurist is treated more fairly as they only work on females and work on manicures. The under paid workers are also forced to pay for spilled polishes, new clothes, and receive pay deductions because of their unhappy clients. There have been many lawyers who have tried to shut down these chains and when they question the owners about their shops they believe they aren’t in the wrong. The shop owners are able to bypass the minimum wage laws by considering it “tipped work” but often the manicurist aren’t tipped at all and never receive a decent wage for the day. It is surprising you me how long this has been going on now. There are too many injustices in this world and if they can be stopped they should be as soon as possible.