I partially knew about the harsh working conditions and low wages of the nail salon business, but I was not aware of its extent. I am a second generation Asian American and my father is part of the 1.5 generation - he was granted the opportunity to study in a STEM field here at the University of Maryland and he made it his life goal to create a comfortable lifestyle for our family. This benefit is a double-edged sword because while I am given a great opportunity for personal success and prosperity, I was completely blinded to the plight of fellow Asian Americans. I am ashamed to reveal that I have never been exposed to these levels of corruption and ill-treatment until I've stumbled upon articles such as these.
This is pretty sad. It reminds me of my recent attempt to find a new smartphone that wasn't made by underpaid and oppressed workers in Asia, or using materials mined by children in Africa. It's incredibly difficult! Literally every major phone producing company utilizes essentially slave labor. The sad truth is none of them will stop since it's so cheap to produce them this way. If any one company stops exploiting workers, they will immediately fall behind the competition.
I get my nails done pretty frequently and I honestly had no idea that things like this happen. The nail salons I have been to are owned by the immigrants who work there and they employ family members. I would never go back to any of those nail salons if I ever found out they treated people this way. People create businesses and employ immigrants and believe they can get away with unfair working conditions, and most of the time they do because a lot of their employees are here illegally and they do not come forward because they fear being kicked out of the country. Taking advantage of people who just want a better life in America than they had in the country they were born in is wrong and these shop owners should be ashamed of themselves for treating people so badly.
I was aware of the fact that anything we buy at a cheaper price is usually a sacrifice and somebody else pays the burden but I was not aware that that was the case in nail salons. I thought manicure and pedicure prices were related to how "nice" the salon is and in the area that it is located. I get my nails done at least every two weeks with the same lady so I always try to talk to her and see what her life is like and now reading this, it all makes sense. She comes from a large family in Vietnam and works 6 days a week from the time they open (10am) until they close (8PM). I've always wondered if she actually got paid or if she depended on the tips she receives from her customers. But this is completely unacceptable and the government or some agency should be looking into this and making sure that these things don't happen. They come to the U.S. for a better life and more opportunities yet they are treated the same or worse than they were in their home countries. Definitely glad I always overtip her.
The Price of Nails opened my eyes to an entire world of exploitation that I had no idea existed at all. Of course I knew that unfair wages and poor working conditions occurred in off-shore factories, however I was not aware the extent to which it existed in the U.S. Especially, at that, in New York City, that has worked over the years to overcome its reputation of being crime-filled and corrupt. It was shocking and saddening to find out such statistics and conditions, and frustrating that I had not known about such an issue before. My lack of knowledge on the subject may be because I grew up in a small town with 3 or 4 salons that were employee-owned and in great conditions. I think it is important that this issue take more of a presence in the world.
While it’s terrible to hear about people being systematically treated this way, it shouldn’t be that surprising. There’s so many sweatshop workers in third-world countries and poorly paid factory workers in China that allow Americans to have affordable products and services. The only difference with the manicurists is that we can see and interact with them in person, so it’s harder to ignore. This article reinforces the idea that capitalism promotes extreme inequality. Policies can be made to alleviate this issue, but it’s only a bandage to an imperfect system and exploitation like this is inevitable, even in a country as well off as the US.
After reading this article, I will definitely be paying more attention when I visit my own nail salon, especially to one older woman who seems rather "mean" every time I see her. She has a chip on her shoulder when it comes to many of the other employees, especially some of the newer people (I've been going to this nail salon for about 8 years now). But this kind of behaviour and exploitation is not uncommon, as I've witnessed it with a latina friend of mine who began a career in housekeeping upon arriving to the US. She had horror stories to last a lifetime, and many of them were about verbal abuse for being from a different part of Latin America than many of the other men and women working for this cleaning/housekeeping company.
Im surprised that the nail salon adopts such a methods. Similar businesses such as barbers pay booth rent and the unwanted barbers don't get interest. I understand getting paid for the quality of work done, but the beginning is usually hard to establish yourself as a good worker.
Sara-Ruth Gabriel One thing I have noticed about Nail Salons, are you always see many of them in inner cities because that is where they make the most money. After reading this it kind of make sense to why that is, since tip is what they are living on. The more people the better chance of getting more tip
Wow, I was really shocked reading this. I had no idea that there was such blatant exploitation and horrible working conditions in the United States. Really curious to see if publicity of these occurrences (something tells me this isn't specific to nail salons) will affect law enforcement cracking down on this kind of thing.
I get my nails done on a regular basis and I would have never thought that some of the things that were mentioned in this article was actually happening. I knew about the hectic work week and the fact that a lot of the people that work in these salons speak very little English. Never the less this particular job is one that requires long hours and based on customer satisfaction like serving. if a server bought out food that was undercooked it is not there fault they did not cook it but they will be the ones who suffer when it comes to the tip at the end. people are aware of the foul things that happen to people but I think that they will continue to sweep it under the rug as if nothing is happening Ryan Rumph
I wonder how prevalent this is in salons outside of New York. I don't get my nails done very often because I think its an unnecessary expense but whenever I do I tend to go to small salons near my house where there are not many salons around in general. This reminds me of the immigrant exploitation exposed in farming operations during the harvesting season when they get shuttled to and from their jobs at early hours and then make a few cents for every piece of produce they pick and make very little in paychecks at the end of the growing season. I thought the portion describing the Korean hierarchy was interesting because I would not have imagined price differentiation based on ethnicity. This kind of exploitation seems like it would be easily fixed if it was easier for immigrants to acquire a legal status so that they could expose this exploitation and not fear being deported.
I am sorry for these type of treatment for minority people as Asians and Hispanics. However, this is not news for me. I had seen and heard many stories like these. These people who hard, and do not quit because they need the money. They want what everyone wants, the American Dream. Many come with a different concept of what is USA. It is known and I had read in an article that most of them are told that they will have a better future, better job here. And well when they come here, they are exploited by their bosses, but sometimes this is better than what they have their homeland (unemployment). A minimum income is better than nothing. I am happy to say that that is the reason why I do not go to these places to do my nails. The same reason why I do not like diamonds, not I wanted when I get engage. Most are taken from Africa or Brasil, or the smallest ones from Australia, I believe. The ones taken from Australia are send to India for cheap labor. There kids like in the fabrics, work for 11-15 hours and most of the time, their money is send to their families. Not to them. Some of them become blind because the diamonds are so tiny, they have lung problems, and they need to be really careful in not blowing away the tiny stone. Those are send to different places, some to USA in stores like Wal-Mart or K-mart. The ones in Africa suffer the same. Some even die. In Brazil its illegal for environment reasons, so many workers die taken them from rivers and explosions. The same for illegal Hispanics, who are usually underpaid. Why they come? Because they don't find jobs in their countries. Plus the violence. I am not from Central America. But reading the history, we will find that those countries are is those poor conditions because USA influenced a lot in the Cold War and around that period. I do not give excuses, but that is something to consider.
I was not previously aware of these conditions in this particular industry, but I can't say it surprised me when I read the article. It reminds me a lot of the clothing manufacturing industry, and the controversy that has been going on there for decades. I think that the problem is that we do not understand the value of the product or service we buy. If we are not willing to pay a reasonable price for something, it is usually the wages of the workers, rather than the profit of the company that suffers first. For a lot of us, it goes against our instinct to pay more for a product or service than we have to, that is why it is so important to think hard about the choices we make as consumers and the impact they will have for other people, before we buy something. This article also highlights the importance of making it easier for workers who are in the country "illegally" to be protected if they need to speak out against employers or industries. - Malin Niklasson
I have been aware of this issue for a while, and while it is terrible that people are living under these conditions, it is a job and if people did not utilize these services then there would be no jobs. I myself feel that I tip really well and that helps a lot.
I was surprised to learn about how poorly manicurists at nail salons are treated, having to live off just tips. I was aware of how factory workers in China have to work extremely hard so that we can have afforable products, but I wasn't aware that this applied to services such as nail salons as well. We do not know the true value of what a manicure is; to get a nail job done at an affordable price, sacrifices have to be made and the employees are the ones who suffer. And because there aren't policies protecting immigrant workers, there's nothing they can do about it.
its a sad topic. these individuals are working long hours to help support their family and build a better futures for themselves but human greed always finds its way in every aspect of businesses. immigrants workers have always been the target no matter where you go. they are easy to exploit and its sicking.
This article gave me an entirely new perspective on the nail salon industry and its business owners. It is very unfortunate that nail salon workers are put in such horrible work conditions and receive negative treatment for their hard work. I agree with a previous "Anonymous" commenter who mentioned that we do not understand the value of what we purchase or the work that goes into creating it. We tend to forget the time and hard work that goes into the products and services we use on a daily basis, and instead, we take them for granted.This article helped me find a whole new respect to those working a the nail salon industry for the hard work they do for little money. This treatment towards them needs to be addressed just like the issues relating to the clothes manufacturing industry.
It is not surprising to me the way employees are treated at nail salons. It is very common in businesses where an employee is expected to make tips that they are not paid or are paid poorly by their employer. I believe this should be changed though, as these workers seem to be taken advantage of, and are manipulated by store owners for cheap labor. However, as long as salons continue to make money and their is little pressure from the government nothing will change.
This article is another example of how important it is for the new generation of adults to fight for fairness in this country. I began reading this article thinking "oh man I can not wait to get my nails done later this week" and now I am just sad. I had this idea that most service places were the same, a set low minimum wage and then all there tips. I hear from my waitress friends how much money they can make being a server based on tips, so I just assumed it was the same. I was almost surprised that there was high levels of discrimination among them, but I remembered it is like that among most races, Hispanics who dislike Spanish, or west Africans not favoring east Africans. I was even shocked to think about 10 or more hour shifts, like how is that even possible, when the shops around my neighborhood are only open from 9am-7pm, but obviously everywhere is different. Nevertheless this article was an eye opener, simply because I never took the time out to think about the harsh work laboring of the nail salons. The article said wages haven't changed since the 90's, that is ridiculous.
I found this article pretty surprising. Being a male, the nail salon isn't a place that I go to everyday, so I am slightly ignorant as to what goes on in a nail salon. I knew nail salons were mainly minorities, and were a cheap way to get your needs done in a recently fast amount of time, but I was unaware of the working conditions people are put through working in a nail salon. The wages some places pay are borderline slavery, and they get away with it because the job selection for immigrants is very thin. The story of the women who came here with only a hundred dollars in her pocket, didn't get paid until 3 months later and she only received 30 dollars a day I was completely shocked when I saw that, and the worst part is, is the trend is very common among most nail salons.
I see a lot of comments here about how surprising and shocking this is, or how most would never even think about the dangers these people face, and I think that's a huge part of how inequality continues. For us (relatively privileged people at an academic institution) we never even hear about 90% of the plight of what underprivileged people face because part of being underprivileged is that it's harder for your voice to be heard. That's why it is important for media to give voice to the concerns of people whose voices are seldom heard.
I partially knew about the harsh working conditions and low wages of the nail salon business, but I was not aware of its extent. I am a second generation Asian American and my father is part of the 1.5 generation - he was granted the opportunity to study in a STEM field here at the University of Maryland and he made it his life goal to create a comfortable lifestyle for our family. This benefit is a double-edged sword because while I am given a great opportunity for personal success and prosperity, I was completely blinded to the plight of fellow Asian Americans. I am ashamed to reveal that I have never been exposed to these levels of corruption and ill-treatment until I've stumbled upon articles such as these.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty sad. It reminds me of my recent attempt to find a new smartphone that wasn't made by underpaid and oppressed workers in Asia, or using materials mined by children in Africa. It's incredibly difficult! Literally every major phone producing company utilizes essentially slave labor. The sad truth is none of them will stop since it's so cheap to produce them this way. If any one company stops exploiting workers, they will immediately fall behind the competition.
ReplyDeleteI get my nails done pretty frequently and I honestly had no idea that things like this happen. The nail salons I have been to are owned by the immigrants who work there and they employ family members. I would never go back to any of those nail salons if I ever found out they treated people this way. People create businesses and employ immigrants and believe they can get away with unfair working conditions, and most of the time they do because a lot of their employees are here illegally and they do not come forward because they fear being kicked out of the country. Taking advantage of people who just want a better life in America than they had in the country they were born in is wrong and these shop owners should be ashamed of themselves for treating people so badly.
ReplyDeleteI was aware of the fact that anything we buy at a cheaper price is usually a sacrifice and somebody else pays the burden but I was not aware that that was the case in nail salons. I thought manicure and pedicure prices were related to how "nice" the salon is and in the area that it is located. I get my nails done at least every two weeks with the same lady so I always try to talk to her and see what her life is like and now reading this, it all makes sense. She comes from a large family in Vietnam and works 6 days a week from the time they open (10am) until they close (8PM). I've always wondered if she actually got paid or if she depended on the tips she receives from her customers. But this is completely unacceptable and the government or some agency should be looking into this and making sure that these things don't happen. They come to the U.S. for a better life and more opportunities yet they are treated the same or worse than they were in their home countries. Definitely glad I always overtip her.
ReplyDeleteThe Price of Nails opened my eyes to an entire world of exploitation that I had no idea existed at all. Of course I knew that unfair wages and poor working conditions occurred in off-shore factories, however I was not aware the extent to which it existed in the U.S. Especially, at that, in New York City, that has worked over the years to overcome its reputation of being crime-filled and corrupt. It was shocking and saddening to find out such statistics and conditions, and frustrating that I had not known about such an issue before. My lack of knowledge on the subject may be because I grew up in a small town with 3 or 4 salons that were employee-owned and in great conditions. I think it is important that this issue take more of a presence in the world.
ReplyDeleteWhile it’s terrible to hear about people being systematically treated this way, it shouldn’t be that surprising. There’s so many sweatshop workers in third-world countries and poorly paid factory workers in China that allow Americans to have affordable products and services. The only difference with the manicurists is that we can see and interact with them in person, so it’s harder to ignore. This article reinforces the idea that capitalism promotes extreme inequality. Policies can be made to alleviate this issue, but it’s only a bandage to an imperfect system and exploitation like this is inevitable, even in a country as well off as the US.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I will definitely be paying more attention when I visit my own nail salon, especially to one older woman who seems rather "mean" every time I see her. She has a chip on her shoulder when it comes to many of the other employees, especially some of the newer people (I've been going to this nail salon for about 8 years now). But this kind of behaviour and exploitation is not uncommon, as I've witnessed it with a latina friend of mine who began a career in housekeeping upon arriving to the US. She had horror stories to last a lifetime, and many of them were about verbal abuse for being from a different part of Latin America than many of the other men and women working for this cleaning/housekeeping company.
ReplyDeleteIm surprised that the nail salon adopts such a methods. Similar businesses such as barbers pay booth rent and the unwanted barbers don't get interest. I understand getting paid for the quality of work done, but the beginning is usually hard to establish yourself as a good worker.
ReplyDeleteSara-Ruth Gabriel
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have noticed about Nail Salons, are you always see many of them in inner cities because that is where they make the most money. After reading this it kind of make sense to why that is, since tip is what they are living on. The more people the better chance of getting more tip
Wow, I was really shocked reading this. I had no idea that there was such blatant exploitation and horrible working conditions in the United States. Really curious to see if publicity of these occurrences (something tells me this isn't specific to nail salons) will affect law enforcement cracking down on this kind of thing.
ReplyDelete-David Teitelbaum
I get my nails done on a regular basis and I would have never thought that some of the things that were mentioned in this article was actually happening. I knew about the hectic work week and the fact that a lot of the people that work in these salons speak very little English. Never the less this particular job is one that requires long hours and based on customer satisfaction like serving. if a server bought out food that was undercooked it is not there fault they did not cook it but they will be the ones who suffer when it comes to the tip at the end. people are aware of the foul things that happen to people but I think that they will continue to sweep it under the rug as if nothing is happening
ReplyDeleteRyan Rumph
I wonder how prevalent this is in salons outside of New York. I don't get my nails done very often because I think its an unnecessary expense but whenever I do I tend to go to small salons near my house where there are not many salons around in general. This reminds me of the immigrant exploitation exposed in farming operations during the harvesting season when they get shuttled to and from their jobs at early hours and then make a few cents for every piece of produce they pick and make very little in paychecks at the end of the growing season. I thought the portion describing the Korean hierarchy was interesting because I would not have imagined price differentiation based on ethnicity. This kind of exploitation seems like it would be easily fixed if it was easier for immigrants to acquire a legal status so that they could expose this exploitation and not fear being deported.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for these type of treatment for minority people as Asians and Hispanics. However, this is not news for me. I had seen and heard many stories like these. These people who hard, and do not quit because they need the money. They want what everyone wants, the American Dream. Many come with a different concept of what is USA. It is known and I had read in an article that most of them are told that they will have a better future, better job here. And well when they come here, they are exploited by their bosses, but sometimes this is better than what they have their homeland (unemployment). A minimum income is better than nothing. I am happy to say that that is the reason why I do not go to these places to do my nails. The same reason why I do not like diamonds, not I wanted when I get engage. Most are taken from Africa or Brasil, or the smallest ones from Australia, I believe. The ones taken from Australia are send to India for cheap labor. There kids like in the fabrics, work for 11-15 hours and most of the time, their money is send to their families. Not to them. Some of them become blind because the diamonds are so tiny, they have lung problems, and they need to be really careful in not blowing away the tiny stone. Those are send to different places, some to USA in stores like Wal-Mart or K-mart. The ones in Africa suffer the same. Some even die. In Brazil its illegal for environment reasons, so many workers die taken them from rivers and explosions. The same for illegal Hispanics, who are usually underpaid. Why they come? Because they don't find jobs in their countries. Plus the violence. I am not from Central America. But reading the history, we will find that those countries are is those poor conditions because USA influenced a lot in the Cold War and around that period. I do not give excuses, but that is something to consider.
ReplyDeleteI was not previously aware of these conditions in this particular industry, but I can't say it surprised me when I read the article. It reminds me a lot of the clothing manufacturing industry, and the controversy that has been going on there for decades. I think that the problem is that we do not understand the value of the product or service we buy. If we are not willing to pay a reasonable price for something, it is usually the wages of the workers, rather than the profit of the company that suffers first. For a lot of us, it goes against our instinct to pay more for a product or service than we have to, that is why it is so important to think hard about the choices we make as consumers and the impact they will have for other people, before we buy something. This article also highlights the importance of making it easier for workers who are in the country "illegally" to be protected if they need to speak out against employers or industries. - Malin Niklasson
ReplyDeleteI have been aware of this issue for a while, and while it is terrible that people are living under these conditions, it is a job and if people did not utilize these services then there would be no jobs. I myself feel that I tip really well and that helps a lot.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to learn about how poorly manicurists at nail salons are treated, having to live off just tips. I was aware of how factory workers in China have to work extremely hard so that we can have afforable products, but I wasn't aware that this applied to services such as nail salons as well. We do not know the true value of what a manicure is; to get a nail job done at an affordable price, sacrifices have to be made and the employees are the ones who suffer. And because there aren't policies protecting immigrant workers, there's nothing they can do about it.
ReplyDelete- Brian Kang
its a sad topic. these individuals are working long hours to help support their family and build a better futures for themselves but human greed always finds its way in every aspect of businesses. immigrants workers have always been the target no matter where you go. they are easy to exploit and its sicking.
ReplyDeleteThis article gave me an entirely new perspective on the nail salon industry and its business owners. It is very unfortunate that nail salon workers are put in such horrible work conditions and receive negative treatment for their hard work. I agree with a previous "Anonymous" commenter who mentioned that we do not understand the value of what we purchase or the work that goes into creating it. We tend to forget the time and hard work that goes into the products and services we use on a daily basis, and instead, we take them for granted.This article helped me find a whole new respect to those working a the nail salon industry for the hard work they do for little money. This treatment towards them needs to be addressed just like the issues relating to the clothes manufacturing industry.
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprising to me the way employees are treated at nail salons. It is very common in businesses where an employee is expected to make tips that they are not paid or are paid poorly by their employer. I believe this should be changed though, as these workers seem to be taken advantage of, and are manipulated by store owners for cheap labor. However, as long as salons continue to make money and their is little pressure from the government nothing will change.
ReplyDelete-Jeremy Levin
This article is another example of how important it is for the new generation of adults to fight for fairness in this country. I began reading this article thinking "oh man I can not wait to get my nails done later this week" and now I am just sad. I had this idea that most service places were the same, a set low minimum wage and then all there tips. I hear from my waitress friends how much money they can make being a server based on tips, so I just assumed it was the same. I was almost surprised that there was high levels of discrimination among them, but I remembered it is like that among most races, Hispanics who dislike Spanish, or west Africans not favoring east Africans. I was even shocked to think about 10 or more hour shifts, like how is that even possible, when the shops around my neighborhood are only open from 9am-7pm, but obviously everywhere is different. Nevertheless this article was an eye opener, simply because I never took the time out to think about the harsh work laboring of the nail salons. The article said wages haven't changed since the 90's, that is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI found this article pretty surprising. Being a male, the nail salon isn't a place that I go to everyday, so I am slightly ignorant as to what goes on in a nail salon. I knew nail salons were mainly minorities, and were a cheap way to get your needs done in a recently fast amount of time, but I was unaware of the working conditions people are put through working in a nail salon. The wages some places pay are borderline slavery, and they get away with it because the job selection for immigrants is very thin. The story of the women who came here with only a hundred dollars in her pocket, didn't get paid until 3 months later and she only received 30 dollars a day I was completely shocked when I saw that, and the worst part is, is the trend is very common among most nail salons.
ReplyDeleteI see a lot of comments here about how surprising and shocking this is, or how most would never even think about the dangers these people face, and I think that's a huge part of how inequality continues. For us (relatively privileged people at an academic institution) we never even hear about 90% of the plight of what underprivileged people face because part of being underprivileged is that it's harder for your voice to be heard. That's why it is important for media to give voice to the concerns of people whose voices are seldom heard.
ReplyDelete