A rigid racial and ethnic caste system reigns in modern-day New York (nail salons)

The New York Times published a great piece of investigative journalism a few days ago, and it's worth a read. Some of the details are pretty shocking. They even went so far as to publish it in 4 different languages. It's fair to say that it's caused a bit of a stir in New York. The Governor has already promised to crack down on it. For the title of the thread I picked one of the more eyebrow-raising sentences in the article.

Many of these nail salons are like modern sweatshops with women (mostly) working for far less than minimum wage (or even nothing at all in some cases) while working ridiculously long hours and living in horrific conditions. Pay differs depending on ethnicity.


The Price of Nice Nails

Quote:

Almost all of the workers interviewed by The Times, like Ms. Ren, had limited English; many are in the country illegally. The combination leaves them vulnerable. Some workers suffer more acutely. Nail salons are governed by their own rituals and mores, a hidden world behind the glass exteriors and cute corner shops. In it, a rigid racial and ethnic caste system reigns in modern-day New York City, dictating not only pay but also how workers are treated. Korean workers routinely earn twice as much as their peers, valued above others by the Korean owners who dominate the industry and who are often shockingly plain-spoken in their disparagement of workers of other backgrounds. Chinese workers occupy the next rung in the hierarchy; Hispanics and other non-Asians are at the bottom. The typical cost of a manicure in the city helps explain the abysmal pay. A survey of more than 105 Manhattan salons by The Times found an average price of about $10.50. The countrywide average is almost double that, according to a 2014 survey by Nails Magazine, an industry publication. With fees so low, someone must inevitably pay the price.

One problem seems be there are simply way too many of these salons in New York City: one graphic shows a neighborhood where nail salons outnumber Starbucks by 36 to 6.

Quote:

Census data show the number of salons in New York surged through the 2000s, far outstripping the rest of the country. Growth dimmed slightly during the recession, as lacquered nails remained an affordable treat for many, before climbing again. But as nail salons have mushroomed, it has become harder to turn a profit, some owners said. Manicure prices have not budged much from 1990s levels, according to veteran workers. Neither have wages.

Generally speaking, New York City has a reputation as an expensive city, but the opposite is true when it comes to the price of a manicure: it's half the national average.

Then there's the racial aspect, which goes beyond just differences in pay:

Quote:

An Ethnic Caste System . . . The contrast stems from the stark ethnic hierarchy imposed by nail salon owners. Seventy percent to 80 percent of salons in the city are Korean-owned, according to the Korean American Nail Salon Association. . . . Many Korean owners are frank about their prejudices. “Spanish employees” are not as smart as Koreans, or as sanitary, said Mal Sung Noh, 68, who is known as Mary, at the front desk of Rose Nails, a salon she owns on the Upper East Side. . . . Ana Luisa Camas, 32, an Ecuadorean immigrant, said that at a Korean-owned Connecticut salon where she worked, she and her Hispanic colleagues were made to sit in silence during their entire 12-hour shifts, while the Korean manicurists were free to chat. “For two years I suffered from headaches,” she said. “It was just the stress that was killing me.” Lhamo Dolma, 39, a manicurist from Tibet who goes by Jackey, recalled a former job at a Brooklyn salon where she had to eat lunch every day standing in a kitchenette with the shop’s other non-Korean workers, while her Korean counterparts ate at their desks.

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