Hello, so I work in a barber shop, there's 5 female stylists coming together to ask for a raise. We all went to trade school for this industry and most of us have about 10 years experience. We are paid minimum wage plus tips. Our manager brags about their wealth and expensive trips to Mexico or Hawaii monthly and has 3 children in ivy leagues but they claim they can't afford even a dollar raise.
We have to talk directly to the owner because we don't have a manager, she gets very emotional and uses personal attacks when we bring up valid points on our worth.
I could use some help putting arguments together to combat some of their defenses.
First of all, they use the claim that out tips even things out- though most of us are struggling to make rent and be able to eat (a couple of us just eat free Mac and cheese cups for lunch because money is so tight)
The only way to increase our hourly would be to take back 51 clients a week.. which is not entirely in our control as the shop can't garuntee that amount of business, some days are slow and sometimes clients don't show up to their appointments. It doesn't feel fair our only opportunity to get an extra 2$ an hour is based on something we have very little control over.
Our clients are very happy with us, tips makes 60%-70% of our wage. Always 5 star reviews, I even had a customer yesterday telling me how ridiculous it would be someone with our skills etc and experience only making minimum wage, I kept my mouth shut as the owner often has secret shoppers.
Because we are women, our tips will increase if we wear more makeup or less clothes, this shouldn't be what we must do to pay rent, we are talented workers and deserve to be treated as such.
She is always seeking new stylists online and keeps offering positions when our books aren't full (which remember, full books would mean 2$ pay increase) but the employees that are currently there are willing to do more work and stay employed if only we felt secure in our bills.
We are also able to see in the app how much we make the shop. Most of us earn the shop anywhere from $4000-$9000 each. I would like to ask for a percentage of what we make, but I'm afraid to ask to entirely change the pay situation.. although when booked we make the shop $80+ an hour and get paid $15 an hour minus taxes.
There is not union's in our industry, so it's hard to even know what to ask for, I have really terrible anxiety and my bosses personal attacks stress me out a lot. It would be really helpful to have some arguments prepared for the meeting.