You are being misclassified. Nothing about your arrangement indicates that you are truly self-employed. Here’s an article about how to open up that discussion with the salon owner.

I know this is such a late comment but I am just now finding this thread because I am dying for answers.

Our salon is commission. We are told we have to work a certain amount of hours, adhere to a dress code, blah blah. But when it’s tax time our owner tells us that we are independent contractors and technically self employed. We are not paid for meetings. Our salon is a “sliding commission.”
50% $1000 & under
55% $1000.01 – $1550
60% $1550.01 – 2250

However, the salon also takes a set amount off the top of each service. Takes our full toner charge, our full PPE charge and a percent of a color charge as well. I added up my check last week and did the math. I am making 46%. Less than the starting stated amount in our contract. How do I go about addressing this? Am I being misclassified?

I would speak with a Enrolled Agent. If you’re “being paid” routinely by the same salon owner you’re not an independent contractor at all and shouldn’t be receiving a 1099. Read this post for more information on that.

Whether they’ve been doing it “for years” or whether it’s “in the contract” isn’t at all relevant. Doing an unlawful thing for a long time and putting it into a contract doesn’t suddenly make it legal. Your attorney will likely want to speak with your coworkers to determine whether it’s worth it for you all to go in together (or separately at the same time) against your employer.

They can’t continue to commit theft just because you consent to it. Whether or not you agree to it, it’s still illegal. If you were to take them to court a second time, you’d win again–only this time, they’d lose a whole lot more since you’d have a documented history of wage theft and an out-of-court settlement proving they knew better (which will make their future theft of your wages “willful,” resulting in much bigger consequences).

Don’t tolerate this shit. Employers like this get away with literally stealing from their employees unless professionals force them to stop. Labor rights workers fought really hard for us to have the power to call upon state and federal agencies to support us in these situations, so take advantage of it. I know you want to keep working there, but I would highly recommend against continuing to work for people who think they can steal from their employees.

If you’re not being compensated at least the prevailing minimum wage for each hour you work in a pay period, the employer isn’t in compliance with wage and hour laws. In America, nobody works for free.

I work in a commission only salon. Beginning stylist receive 40% and it goes up to 50% . The salon owner requires a set schedule. Some days we work a mandatory 9 am to 8 pm. We are required to clean , mandatory meetings, salon promoting type events.. ect. She does not pay a draw of any kind. I’m also aware that some of our managers are salary and are not compensated over time. I love my boss but I don’t think this is legal. If I work a 9 to 8 and see no clients i am still required to clean and such and receive $0. Is this legal??

I completely agree. I’ve repeatedly told professionals in this industry that if you can’t find legal employment, take a job doing literally anything else until you can. (Or swallow your pride and go work in a corporate salon, I don’t care how “uncool” they are.)

The biggest thing you can do to help is to meet with lawmakers and make them extremely aware of how these practices are hurting tax revenue and creating additional burdens on the system, all for the personal financial gain of these salon owners. Many of these professionals (a majority of whom are women) just want to make a living doing what they love. They shouldn’t have to accept abuse to accomplish that.