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[missjmai]

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[missjmai]

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[missjmai]

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[missjmai]

The Price of Nice Nails

Manicurists are routinely underpaid and exploited, and endure ethnic bias and other abuse, The New York Times has found.

Check out my article of my insight into this world of beauty as a worker. I’m on the other side.

[missjmai]

On the Other Side

I read an article called The Price of Nails by Sarah Maslin Nir. This is a well written article providing insight into the nail industry. I normally don't speak about politics, laws, labor, etc., but I think this one deserves a spotlight. Despite me being against workers that come to the United States illegally, I still applaud New York Times for shedding a light in a dim corner in this sector of the beauty industry.

I started college around sixteen, and when my parents divorced my mom could not afford college for me. At seventeen, I never worked a day in my life before. I wanted to make money to pay for my tuition so I looked for jobs. Being young, I was told that being a nail technician made money. I never believed much of that. It wasn't something I planned on making a career. It was temporary for me so I went to school and got licensed. Why? School was easy and the majority of the salon owners speak Vietnamese. At least in the south, 80 % of the salon owners were Vietnamese. Yes, I am stereotyping lol. I did not know much about the beauty industry as I do now. I applied for a couple nail jobs in Vietnamese. I interviewed at a couple salons and they said that I did not have the skills needed. So after hearing that from a couple places, I decided to get training. The first place I worked at was like a "free internship." I did the most random things like picking up a birthday cake for the owner's kid, building a website, to folding towels in exchange for learning how to do the trade. The only reason why I agreed was because eventually you could make $1000 bucks a week. It was good enough to pay for college. By the way $1000 never happened simply because I did not have the patience. I hated that place so the next place I worked at offered me $200 bucks for 55 hours because apparently I still needed skills. That's 3 bucks an hour! People stay in hopes of eventually making the big bucks. Eventually, I was able to find a job that kind of paid properly in that industry. Still, I was not getting paid base or even minimum wage. So when the winter hit and it was dead, there was no money. The hours are ridiculous; you are usually working 50 hours to 72 hours a week. Don't even think about vacation. They will get upset and try to talk you out of it.

Owners typically had a sense of superiority and like to cause fear. If you dropped something they like to threaten to take it out of your check. They like to belittle you as well. They walk around like kings and queens squashing their employees beneath. It so true about the assignment of duties. If someone came in and they did not want to work on the person. They would toss that person to you. That included males because they typically had larger feet making it difficult to massage. It also included children because the pedicures were also cheaper meaning you made less money. They are also extremely racist against the guests and the employees. Although I never experience having to pay for "training". I did work for free. I am not sure if it is because most owners are immigrant families and that is their culture there. This is my experience working in about eight salons within a span of seven months. Am I saying all places do this? Maybe not, but the vast majority yes.

I was young, naive, and dumb at the time. I left the industry, and graduated from five beauty schools and currently pursuing MBA degree. Today, I'm a writer and entrepreneur. I'm working on my company and expanding it into a national scale. Obviously, I didn't last long at any of the places, but it was long enough to make a crappy impression. Read the article! It's very thought provoking and just plain honesty of what goes on. I hope the Labor Department investigates further and kick the owners' butt. We can only dream right?

The Price of Nice Nails Manicurists are routinely underpaid and exploited, and endure ethnic bias and other abuse, The New York Times has found. NYTIMES.COM|BY SARAH MASLIN NIR

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[missjmai]

Trying to not fall flat on my face ... In the intro class 😅 #fitness #dance #poledance #manhattan #chelsea #nyc #nyclife #poledancing #spin #dancing #polespin #workout #newyork #instalike #cute #sweat #weeeeeee

[missjmai]

#tbt to my former #pageants days competing for #MissAR 😄 #fitness #model #fashion #jannamai #miss #work #love #lashes #glamour #fabulous #instalove #instalike #beauty #pageantry #missarkansas #missuniverse #vietnamese #swimsuit #swimsuitcompetition #bikini

[missjmai]

Graduation Day! From skewl nombur 4.. 😆 Thank you for everyone’s great unconditional support. You guys are the best! 😁 #friends #soho #manhattan #graduation #graduationceremony #love #laughter #bestfriends #friendsforever #instalove #newyork #newyorkcity #nyc #lovelovelove #instalike #arrojocosmo #life #beauty #hair

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Can't wait for the #summer at the Hamptons again... 😜😎😋 #beach #hamptons #coopersbeach #montuak #longisland #newyork #ocean #victoriasecret #swimsuit #sunny #tbt #instalove #love #flowerheadband #waves #tanning