When you work as a dancer you get paid in cash, there are very few clubs that pay the dancers in the form of a paycheck. The ones that do are clubs out in the middle of nowhere that hurt for girls. You get some sort of a base salary that at the most will cover your housing expenses and then you need to make your profits by doing as many lap dances as possible and tips on stage. Some clubs (very few) pay you an hourly salary but you still have to pay the club to work there and tip the house moms, DJ and bouncers. For example, The Great Alaskan Bush Company in Anchorage. And the rest of the clubs (which accounts for most of them) the dancers pay to work at the club and tip the staff with no hourly salary. The dancers are the ones that carry the rest of the staff in the strip club basically. No dancers = no strip club.
Most clubs do not realize this fact and take advantage of the girls as much as they possibly can. A great example is tipping the bartender. Why should the dancers tip the bartender?
The bartender makes an hourly salary and gets tips from the customers. Why should I, if I do not order a drink for myself, have to tip the bartender? Especially since I don't (most of the time) even make an hourly salary.
Lap dances usually go for a set club minimum. Some girls are so desperate that they are willing to do a lap dance for less than the club minimum or maybe for some food stamps or OxyContins. Other girls charge more than the house minimum and/or demand a tip after the dance is done. They work the guys for all that they have.
When you sit around the stage in a strip club it is expected that you tip the girl on stage. Here's a friendly advice, f you do not want to tip, do not sit at the stage. Somebody else that actually has money and is willing to spend it can take that spot your cheap ass was occupying. You should at the very least give one dollar per song, but that is cutting it short. I'd say....if the girl is up there for two songs, you should give her no less than $ 3 and up. Some people tip well on stage and it usually works out fairly well for me, I am speaking in general here because sometimes there will be a random yahoo sitting at my stage with a big grin plastered across the face and no money. Yeah buddy, go away please. The stage tips were not bad at Holiday House in Winner South Dakota but the house fee was rather steep, $ 110 - $ 135 depending on the night of the week. In New York City on the other hand it is kind of rare that you get tipped on stage, the stage is not really that much in focus there in general, every club is kind of different like that.
I would not expect stage tips at work if I worked at a club that paid me a fair hourly salary. Let's say the clubs would be picky about who they hired, hired only pretty girls that danced nice on stage and were able to carry on a great conversation. You had to do a certain amount of sets on stage and also a certain amount of lap dances per shift, for free. But the club would have to pay the dancers for an eight hour shift, like a regular full time job. I would say a fair salary for something like that would be about $ 150/hour. Perhaps $ 240/hour depending on how many lap dances were included in that. To cover their expenses to the dancers the clubs would charge a rather hefty cover fee, like $ 100 -200/person, alcohol not included. But for that cover fee you would get a certain amount of dances for free, like 3-5 and if you wanted more you would have to pay more. The clubs would be high class, all the trashy riff raff would be kept out and you would be able to experience some high class adult entertainment. There would be emphasis put on ambiance, such as furnishing, decor and lights, not to mention that the dancers would all be pretty much quality. I think that is a great idea. I don't know if it would work but I think it would be nicer to go to a club like that instead of a dive where some scary looking girl with tattoos made in jail does an upside down crotch dive on you while you sit on the stage, puts her ass in your face and you just pray that she washed herself that night before coming to work. Then you go home and frenetically scrub yourself down with some antibacterial soap while promising yourself that you will never go to a strip club again.
Other occupations expect tips too. I do think that the minimum wage should go up in general. I mean, why should cashiers have a tip jar and expect tips? How about paying all your workers a livable wage instead of relying on someone else to make up your wage shortfall? It seems like everybody is walking around with their hand out nowadays. I do tip when I get my lattes, never less than $ 1. But I know that the baristas make minimum wage. At Starbucks they make a fairly decent living and get benefits I've heard. But I am not going to tip some guy that opened the door for me to a hotel or a restaurant or a bathroom attendant. First of all, I don't want you to open that door for me, I can do that myself. And in the bathroom, I do not need somebody to stuff a wad of paper towels in my face or offer me a breath mint or some lotion. I would decline that service anyways. It's more annoying if anything. I worked as a waitress in Sweden for a while in a very busy restaurant. I made an ok hourly salary and tips were not expected and if I got a tip it was like a bonus and much appreciated. In some countries tipping is not part of the culture.
