Exotic Dancers Win Appeal

PHOENIX – The Ninth Circuit revived a group of exotic dancers’ claims against the club at which they worked. The dancers claim the club failed to pay them any wages and willfully failed to pay them at the rate of Arizona’s minimum wage.

The lower court ruled that the dancers did not prove they were employees rather than independent contractors, but the term “employee” in the Fair Labor Standards Act “serves to identify those plaintiffs who may be entitled to relief, not to limit the authority of federal courts to adjudicate claims.”