A Las Vegas bikini barista says she recently quit her job. It wasn’t due to the skimpy uniform or difficult customers, though. It was because of how management paid its workers.
Shawtymaddumbb (@shawtymaddumbb) claims the coffee stand classified its workers as independent contractors rather than employees. She says the business didn’t pay them an hourly wage.
“Now that I quit the bikini barista stand that I was working at here in Vegas, I can tell y’all, he wasn’t paying us,” she says. Her video has since garnered nearly 40,000 views.
‘He Still Expected Us to Perform … Without Getting Paid’
According to the woman, most baristas’ income came entirely from customer tips. “He had us listed as independent contractor[s], so he wouldn’t have to pay us,” she alleges. “He still expected us to perform all of the tasks an employee would do without getting paid as an employee.”
Shawtymaddumbb says she personally managed to make decent money because she was good at “hustling” for tips, but this wasn’t the case for many of the other workers who helped run the stand.
“There [were] a lot of girls that would make genuinely $50 for their six hour shift,” she says.
That works out to roughly $8.33 an hour.
She also alleges that the stand frequently hired “super green, super young girls” who didn’t necessarily understand why the arrangement might be a problem.
What Is a Bikini Barista?
A bikini barista is a coffee-shop or drive-thru worker who serves drinks while wearing revealing clothing, often bikinis. People associate the concept with drive-thru coffee stands in the Pacific Northwest, and specifically Washington state, where they originated.
Seattle Gay News says, “The idea of a sexy coffee stand is the brainchild of Mary Keller Wynn … While Wynn’s baristas dressed professionally with a hint of naughty – work uniforms were a white tank top and bright pink shorts – Wynn never went as far as bikinis.”
However, as the publication notes, it wasn’t long before other businesses iterated on the concept.
Can a Las Vegas Bikini Barista Really Be Paid Only in Tips?
If the workers were legally employees, Nevada law makes the answer straightforward.
Nevada’s minimum wage, as of July 2024, is $12 an hour across the state, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Unlike federal law and the laws of some other states, Nevada does not allow employers to use workers’ tips as a credit toward that minimum wage. In other words, tips cannot be counted as any portion of the $12 Nevada minimum wage an employer owes an employee.
The employee must receive at least the applicable minimum wage from their employer, with tips on top of that. So if the baristas described by Shawtymaddumbb were legally employees, paying them nothing and leaving their entire income dependent on tips would be illegal.
The more pertinent question is whether these workers were actually independent contractors.
What Defines an Independent Contractor?
Businesses can’t necessarily sidestep wage laws by simply deeming a worker an “independent contractor.”
Nevada law lays out criteria for determining when someone is presumed to be one, including how much control a worker has over how and when the work is performed.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean a set schedule is illegal. Existing statutes allow some scheduling constraints, including “completion schedule” and “range of work hours.”
Because the bikini stand is setting shifts, requiring workers to be at their location, and dictating duties and how they’re performed, the “independent contractor” label becomes much more questionable.
Nevada law prohibits employers from willfully misclassifying workers as independent contractors.
The state also allows workers to file misclassification complaints with the Nevada Labor Commissioner. Workers found to have been misclassified are able to recover lost wages and benefits.
‘Girl Call the Labor Board’
Many viewers urged Shawtymaddumbb to contact the proper authorities.
“This is illegal. I know someone who sued for this and won over 100k,” wrote one commenter.
“That’s messy. Does he think that b/c you’re [in] a bikini doing the job that it means he can treat you with less respect?” asked another.
A third simply suggested: “Girl call the labor board.”
@shawtymaddumbb/
Subplot News reached out to Shawtymaddumbb via TikTok direct message for comment.
