Sex Worker Unionization: The Main Benefits

Introduction

The legalization and unionization of individuals in the sex work industry is a critical issue. There are differing opinions on whether persons providing sex services should be granted the same benefits as workers in other industries. Lack of union representation can contribute to sex workers being underpaid and not provided with benefits that other professions have access to. Therefore, the unionization of sex workers is critical to ensuring their occupational, social, and economic rights are protected.

Legal Prostitution in the United States

In the United States of America, prostitution is illegal in all states, with the exception of Nevada. In the State of Nevada, prostitution, as a type of sex work, is allowed on the territory of ten counties, including Churchill, Esmeralda, Lander, Mineral, Nye, Storey, Elko, Humboldt, Lyon, and White Pine counties.¹ Despite prostitution being considered a lawful trade in the state, there are many legal prohibitions that substantially limit the scope of the trade as well as sex worker agency and autonomy. On the territory of Nevada, solicitation and prostitution are considered illegal activities unless they take place in a licensed location.² However, state law prohibits brothels from being licensed in counties with a population of 700,000 official residents.³ Thus, a sudden increase in population can put legal prostitution in Nevada counties in serious jeopardy. The state profits from the fees that brothels pay for licensing and worker registration cards, with different fees instituted by individual counties.⁴ However, it should be noted that brothels do not pay tax on sex acts.

Furthermore, legal prostitution in Nevada imposes certain restrictions on sex workers. Thus, in the state, brothel employees are considered independent contractors and, therefore, are responsible for their own taxes and do not receive any health benefits, vacation pay, or a retirement plan.⁵ However, despite being independent contractors, sex workers are only allowed to work on the premises of a licensed brothel, limiting their income, agency, and work opportunities. Sex workers share up to half of their earnings with the brothel owners. In addition, if they live on the brothel property, they are also expected to pay rent, food costs, and any other costs of living to the brothel owner.⁶ In addition, they may be required to pay for worker registration cards and regular STD checks themselves. Thus, it can be argued that despite prostitution being legal in the state of Nevada, sex workers are being put in a disadvantaged position due to numerous legal limitations and the monopoly of licensed brothels on sex work.

Disadvantages of Legal Prostitution

The example of the state of Nevada shows that legal prostitution can be detrimental to sex workers without the involvement of an efficient labor union. The status of independent contractors ensures that employers, in this case, brothels, have minimal responsibility towards sex workers performing services on their premises. Although independent contractors can negotiate their own price for the services they provide, sex workers rarely have this opportunity. However, most brothel owners set specific minimal prices for various sex services and a fixed “house cut” – a percentage of sex workers’ earnings.⁷ Thus, sex workers are only allowed to negotiate prices with clients and have limited control over their earnings overall due to the brothels cut of their earnings. Furthermore, in the United States, independent contractors working in any industry are prohibited from joining a labor union by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and are excluded from other NLRA coverage.⁸ Therefore, the legalization of prostitution without sex workers being allowed to unionize yields little legal protection for them.

Furthermore, the Nevada model of legal prostitution fosters inequality in the sex worker community. Although legalized prostitution contributes to greater economic equality, this type of legalization prevents sex workers working in other conditions rather than brothels from benefiting from their trade being legally recognized.⁹ Thus, individuals preferring to work from home or visit clients do not have the same legal protection as those acting as independent contractors in licensed brothels.

In addition, in this model of prostitution being legalized, sex workers are granted little control over their work environment. In Nevada, the working conditions of the persons employed by licensed brothels are controlled by the owners of the brothels and not the sex workers.¹⁰ Moreover, other workers in the industry may be forced to work in unsafe environments, including the homes of the clients or the street. Self-employed labor is characterized by highly heterogeneous and individualized working conditions that depend on the budget and opportunities of each individual worker.¹¹ Thus, the creation of licensed brothels that hire independent contractors for work does not translate into safe working conditions being created for sex workers.

The status of independent contractors also prevents sex workers from receiving benefits typically granted to employees in other fields of work. In the context of prostitution being legalized in Nevada, sex workers contracted by the brothels do not receive any employment benefits, while the work of other individuals in the industry is considered illegal. The legalization of sex work without adequate support from labor unions and the official status of an employee being granted to sex workers puts individuals in the industry at a significant disadvantage.

Labor Unions Representing Sex Workers

Labor unions can substantially benefit the individuals in the sex work industry. Within any field of work, unionization can have a variety of beneficial effects on the workers as it aims to lessen “inequalities that work norms and cultures help maintain and often exacerbate.”¹² Several unions represent sex workers and advocate for further legalization of different services in the sex work industry. For example, Erotic Services Providers Union and Sex Worker Outreach Project are two sex worker rights groups that are actively involved in public outreach and advocacy for the rights and needs of sex workers.¹³ The organizations have common objectives of securing the occupational, social, and economic rights for individuals within the sex work industry.¹⁴ Both organizations contributed substantially to the education of the public on sex work, addressing the myths surrounding the industry, and demanding prosecution of clients for sex worker abuse.¹⁵ Currently, both organizations fight for sex work being legalized in more states and the protection of sex worker rights.

Conclusion

In summary, unionization is critical for the sex worker community. The legalization of prostitution and other types of sex work can contribute substantially to the industry being safer and workers receiving legal recognition. However, without unionization, legalization can lead to sex workers not being granted a status of an employee, inequalities within the workforce being fostered, unsafe working conditions, and an absence of benefits. Therefore, sex workers should be able to form labor unions in order to ensure their occupational, economic, social, and other rights are realized.

Bibliography

Abel, Gillian, and Melissa Ludeke. “Brothels as Sites of Third-Party Exploitation? Decriminalisation and Sex Workers’ Employment Rights.” Social Sciences 10, no. 1 (2020), 1–15. doi:10.3390/socsci10010003.

Benoit, Cecilia, Róisín Unsworth, Priscilla Healey, Michaela Smith, and Mikael Jansson. “Centering Sex Workers’ Voices in Law and Social Policy.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 18, no. 4 (2021), 897–908. doi:10.1007/s13178-021-00576-9.

Erotic Service Providers Union. “Unionize.” Erotic Service Providers Union. 

Hardy, Kate, and Katie Cruz. “Affective Organizing: Collectivizing Informal Sex Workers in an Intimate Union.” American Behavioral Scientist 63, no. 2 (2018), 244–261. doi:10.1177/0002764218794795.

Majic, Samantha. “Same Same but Different? Gender, sex work, and respectability politics in the MyRedBook and Rentboy closures.” Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 14 (2020), 82–98. doi:10.14197/atr.201220146.

Pettinicchio, David, and Michelle L. Maroto. “Combating Inequality: The Between- and Within-Group Effects of Unionization on Earnings for People with Different Disabilities.” The Sociological Quarterly 62, no. 4 (2020), 763–787. doi:10.31235/osf.io/kg2pm.

Rindels, Michelle. “Indy Explains: How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.” The Nevada Independent. 

Sex Workers Outreach Project. “About Us.” Sex Workers Outreach Project. 

Weaver, Julia H. “Two Sides of the Same Coin: Examining the Misclassification of Workers as Independent Contractors.” Georgia Law Review 55 (2020), 1355-1382.

Footnotes

1. Michelle Rindels, “Indy Explains: How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada,” The Nevada Independent. Web.
2. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
3. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
4. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
5. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
6. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
7. Gillian Abel and Melissa Ludeke, “Brothels as Sites of Third-Party Exploitation? Decriminalisation and Sex Workers’ Employment Rights,” Social Sciences 10, no. 1 (2020): 6, doi:10.3390/socsci10010003.
8. Julia H. Weaver, “Two Sides of the Same Coin: Examining the Misclassification of Workers as Independent Contractors,” Georgia Law Review 55 (2020): 1361.
9. Cecilia Benoit et al., “Centering Sex Workers’ Voices in Law and Social Policy,” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 18, no. 4 (2021): 904, doi:10.1007/s13178-021-00576-9.
10. Rindels, “How Legal Prostitution Works in Nevada.”
11. Kate Hardy and Katie Cruz, “Affective Organizing: Collectivizing Informal Sex Workers in an Intimate Union,” American Behavioral Scientist 63, no. 2 (2018): 247, doi:10.1177/0002764218794795.
12. David Pettinicchio and Michelle L. Maroto, “Combating Inequality: The Between- and Within-Group Effects of Unionization on Earnings for People with Different Disabilities,” The Sociological Quarterly 62, no. 4 (2020): 781, doi:10.31235/osf.io/kg2pm.
13. Samantha Majic, “Same Same but Different? Gender, sex work, and respectability politics in the MyRedBook and Rentboy closures,” Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 14 (2020): 89, doi:10.14197/atr.201220146.
14. Erotic Service Providers Union, “Unionize,” Erotic Service Providers Union. Web.
15. Sex Workers Outreach Project, “About Us,” Sex Workers Outreach Project. Web.