May 11, 2015
Bebeto Matthews /AP
A customer receives a manicure at Castle nail salon, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, in New York.
The New York governor created a citywide nail salon task force on Sunday in reaction to a New York Times investigative article published last week, which exposed manicurists as being routinely underpaid and exploited.
"We will not stand idly by as workers are deprived of their hard-earned wages and robbed of their most basic rights," Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement regarding the new rules and oversight of New York's nail salon industry.
"Effective immediately, a new, multiagency task force will conduct salon-by-salon investigations, institute new rules that salons must follow to protect manicurists from the potentially dangerous chemicals found in nail products, and begin a six-language education campaign to inform them of their rights," the Times reported in a follow up to its investigation.
According to the Times article, which was the result of more than 150 interviews with nail salon workers and owners conducted in four languages throughout the state of New York, a vast majority of nail salon employees are paid below minimum wage, and some are not paid at all.
Many of the workers endure all manner of humiliation, the Times found, including having their tips docked as punishment for minor transgressions, constant video monitoring by owners and in some instances, physical abuse.
Effective immediately, the multiagency task force will conduct salon-by-salon investigations, institute new rules that salons must follow to protect manicurists from the potentially dangerous chemicals found in nail products, and begin a six-language education campaign to inform them of their rights," the Times reported in a follow up article to its investigation.
Salons that don't follow the rules will be shuttered.
Read the full NYT investigative article here.
