Saturday, August 18, 2007
The dark side of nail salons
August 19, 2007
At Nail Salons, Beauty Treatments Can Have a Distinctly Unglamorous Side
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Happy Lee can hardly believe that the nail salon across the street from hers
charges just $7 for a manicure.
"I don't know how they can make it," said Ms. Lee, the owner of Happy Beauty
Salon in Carle Place, on Long Island, which employs nine manicurists.
Ms. Lee said her industry had been thrown into turmoil by a wave of new
salons that have taken away business and driven down prices — from high-end
nail emporiums on the Upper East Side to low-cost shops in suburban strip
malls. Competition is so intense, she said, that her salon still charges $8
for manicures Monday through Wednesday, the same price it charged when it
opened in 1984.
"When we opened, it was easy to make it, but now it's very hard," she said.
Nationwide, the number of salons has doubled over the past decade, according
to Nails Magazine, an industry publication, lifting the number to 3,800 in
New York State and to 2,600 in New Jersey.
As the number of nail salons has surged, Chinese immigrants have poured into
the industry in New York and New Jersey, which has long been dominated by
Korean immigrants, like Ms. Lee. These Chinese manicurists often work for
low wages, helping salon owners hold down their expenses and prices.
These low prices are a boon to the many women and more and more men who have
weekly manicures not just to look good, but also to feel good.
"Nail salons have expanded because there's a lot more attention to fine
grooming," said Cyndy Drummey, the editor of Nails Magazine. "It's a
low-cost, good-feeling thing that's accessible to everybody."
But the demand has taken a toll on many salon workers, advocates for the
workers said. Owners often force employees to work 60 hours a week while
failing to pay overtime or allow lunch breaks. And lower prices mean lower
tips for workers who spend their days cutting cuticles and painting on
polish.
Beyond wage problems, many manicurists say their job requires using harmful
chemicals that often cause allergic reactions, breathing problems and
rashes. In one extreme case, a manicurist in New Jersey was set on fire
after chemical fumes in her shop burst into flames.
"We're seeing more abuses over wages, dangerous chemicals and safety," said
Nancy Eng, an organizer with the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, an
advocacy group for immigrant workers. Concerns about such abuses have led to
stepped-up efforts to confront salon owners.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has sued two salons near
Lincoln Center, accusing them of violating overtime laws. Several city and
state lawmakers have joined with the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association
to create an alliance that will push for stricter air quality regulations at
salons and screen workers for health problems.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has distributed more than
$200,000 in grants and published brochures seeking to minimize chemical
exposures that could harm salon workers and customers. And the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the salon in
Hillsdale, N.J., where a manicurist caught fire and was critically injured
on May 30.
"She looked like a marshmallow on fire," said Russell Andrews, the owner of
a nearby shop who helped extinguish the flames.
Yuki Lin, a 27-year-old immigrant from China, said her salon in Jamaica,
Queens, did not pay her any wages during her first three weeks, and then
paid her just $20 per day for the next three weeks. Like many manicurists,
she typically worked 10 hours a day, six days a week. Often on busy days,
she said, she could not take a lunch break until 5 p.m.
Her boss ultimately raised her pay to $70 a day, not including the $15 or so
she received in tips. But she quit last October because she was convinced
that a rash covering her face was caused by one or more of the solvents,
primers, polishes, glues and acrylics used at the salon.
"It was very red, and there were all these bumps," Ms. Lin said. "My husband
said I should quit. When I complained to my boss about it last summer, he
said it was just a seasonal allergy. He didn't want me to quit because the
salon was very busy at the time.
"I spent $1,000 out of my own pocket to see doctors about the rash," she
added. "It finally started going away a few months after I left."
In a 2004 survey of salon employees in New York City, 37 percent said they
often or sometimes had skin problems, 37 percent said they suffered from eye
irritation, 57 percent from allergies, 66 percent from neck or back
discomfort and 18 percent from asthma. For the survey, 100 workers were
interviewed by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health and
a Korean workers' group, Empowering the Korean American Community.
"There are a lot of toxic products, and there's often very poor
ventilation," said Dr. George Friedman-Jiménez, director of the Bellevue/New
York University Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic. Many salon
chemicals cause skin problems, he said, and nail dust and fumes from glues
and acrylics used to make artificial nails can cause breathing problems.
He said his clinic hopes to work with salon owners and state officials to
test air quality and screen manicurists for health problems.
Lisa Huang, who works at a salon in the Bronx, said the chemical smell
sometimes nauseates her. "Of course, I'm concerned about the dangers," she
said, "but I need to work and make a living."
An example of the industry's growing tensions can usually be seen on Fridays
on the West Side of Manhattan, where protesters picket outside a salon at
Amsterdam Avenue and 67th Street. One protester, Do Yea Kim, a Korean
immigrant who worked for 17 years at the salon, 167 Nail Plaza, has filed a
lawsuit accusing the salon of not paying her overtime and not giving her
lunch breaks, as required by state law.
"The owner made it hard because there were no breaks," said Ms. Kim, who
said she worked most days from 9:15 a.m. to 8 p.m. She said she earned $460
a week, and at least $200 more in tips.
Dong Rim Park, the salon's owner, said Ms. Kim's allegations were false. "Of
course we give lunch breaks," she said, pointing to several employees who
were on breaks because the shop was not busy.
Ms. Park said that she was not an expert on overtime laws, but that she
always paid at least the minimum wage. "The workers and I agreed on what
they would be paid, and no one ever protested about overtime," she said.
She said the weekly protests were hurting her business and her employees'
incomes. "Business was already tough before all this happened," said Ms.
Park, a Korean immigrant who opened her salon in 1985. "There are many more
nail salons than Starbucks, but not nearly as many people have manicures as
drink coffee."
More than 80 percent of the salons in the New York-New Jersey area are
Korean-owned, according to industry experts. In California, by contrast, an
estimated three-fourths of salon owners and workers are Vietnamese. The
Vietnamese community there has been far more outspoken about safety problems
than the Korean community has been in New York.
Ms. Lee, the salon owner on Long Island, said many Koreans went into the
business because entry costs are relatively low, with entrepreneurs able to
open salons for $50,000 to $100,000. Asian immigrants, whether Koreans two
decades ago or Chinese today, often become manicurists because the job
requires little English and only a few weeks of training.
"It's hard now to get Korean workers, so we hire Chinese a lot of the time,"
said Ms. Lee, who is co-chairwoman of the Korean American Nail Association
of New York.
"I want to put my daughter in the business, but no way she wants to do
that," she said, adding that her daughter was in college and wanted to
become a teacher. "They don't want to do this any more, the younger
generation."
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