New York State Issues Emergency Measures to Protect Nail Salon Workers

This just in—due to investigations published by The New York Times last week, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has ordered emergency measures to protect the thousands of individuals working in nail salons in the state. The New York Times reports, “Effective immediately, [Cuomo] said in a statement, a new, multiagency task force will conduct salon-by-salon investigations, institute new rules that salons must follow to protect manicurists from the potentially dangerous chemicals found in nail products, and begin a six-language education campaign to inform them of their rights.” Additionally, salons will be mandated to post signs informing workers of their rights, and the signs will be in a dozen languages.

Manicurists will be required to wear gloves to avoid contracting skin diseases, and salons will be required to be bonded so that if a worker is underpaid, a bonding agency will ensure reparations.

In her investigations, conducted in multiple languages by additional reporters and researchers, Sarah Maslin Nir discovered that manicurists oftentimes work for free when they start, paying $100 per day for the “privilege” of learning. “I am worth less than a shoe,” 47-year-old manicurist Qing Lin told Nir.

Even once they finally get paid, they earn only about $3 to $4 an hour, in addition to being subject to harmful fumes and unventilated conditions that have led to miscarriages and cancer. The Times conducted over 125 interviews with nail salon workers. “Many have learned to simply laugh them off — the nose that constantly bleeds, the throat that has ached every day since the manicurist started working,” Nir reports. Some of these manicurists are also mothers. “Many manicurists pay caregivers as much as half their wages to take their babies six days a week, 24 hours a day, after finding themselves unable to care for them at night and still wake up to paint nails,” Nir writes.

Taking these emergency measures will circumvent the time-consuming steps of usual public policy implementation. “We cannot wait to address the problem,” Alphonso B. David, the counsel for the governor told The New York Times.

Updated: On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan by two New York City nail salon works against four salon companies over wages. According to a story from Reuters, the lawsuit states that the workers were paid $60 for 10-hour shits without breaks. The lawsuit is seeking class action status on behalf of everyone who has been employed by the companies.

Related:

NY Times’ 13-Month Investigation of Nail Salon Workers Exploitation