Exotic dancers and "door girls" at Thee Dollhouse in Tampa are suing the strip club. They say they are owed nearly $4 million in unpaid wages.
At issue is whether the dancers and others who work at Thee Dollhouse are "employees" or "independent contractors."
While he hasn't seen the complaint, Stetson Law Associate Professor Jason Bent said, for example, a plumber is an independent contractor because they are not economically dependent on a particular customer.
But in his words, it gets "blurrier" when you talk about hairdressers or dancers.
"The leading case on this, right now, the leading issue is the Uber drivers. Because Uber is maintaining they are independent contractors and some of the drivers would prefer to be classified as employees to get the protection of the wage and hour laws," he said.
Bent said similar cases in other states have led to big payouts for the plaintiffs.
