Strip clubs may be a place to party for some, but for female entertainers, they are an office space. And over the past few years that workplace has changed dramatically thanks to an entirely new job position moving in: bartenders.
Even though bartenders don’t get up on stage, the strip club bartenders dress similarly to the dancers and shake it behind the bar. Because customers tend to throw money into the air as they would to a dancer, rather than handing them the money directly, bartenders have found themselves fighting with surrounding employees, including dancers, to acquire their tips.
Some strippers have started to organize a city wide strike to address the competition between the women, along with other issues that affect the industry. "I’ve had resentment as a dancer, I remember resenting bartenders,” Chela, who recently transitioned from dancing to bartending, tells VICE News. “It becomes very aggressive. People forget who they are when they start to see money."
