Las Vegas bikini barista quits her job after working a 6-hour shift for $50. Then she reveals how management actually paid her: ‘Girl call the labor board’

A woman who worked at a bikini barista stand in Las Vegas has quit her job and spoken out about how she and her colleagues have been treated. She shared her account in a short TikTok video.

The clip from GREY 3.0 shows her speaking from what appears to be her home. She does not show any documents or name the business or its owner, but alleges, “Now that I quit the bikini barista stand that I was working at here in Vegas, I can tell y’all, he wasn’t paying us.”

According to her, the owner listed the staff as independent contractors. “He had us listed as independent contractors so he wouldn’t have to pay us.” She does not provide evidence for that claim in the video.

She says the workers were paid through tips

As she tells it, pay came only from tips. “All we made, all the money we made was from the customers’ tips,” she said. She adds that the owner “still expected us to perform all of the tasks an employee would do without getting paid as an employee.”

She says she did fine. “I was decent at hustling. I’m good at hustling, so I never really had an issue,” she said. Others, she says, did not fare as well, with “a lot of girls” making “genuinely $50” during a six-hour shift.

$50 over six hours works out to about $8.33 an hour. The video does not say whether $50 was the full amount. It also does not say whether tips were pooled or shared out. She called the pay unfair. “That’s less than minimum wage to be in a bikini and making coffee,” she said.

She also claimed the owner hired “super green, super young girls who didn’t understand why that was unacceptable.” She did not give their ages. From her description, she appears to be referring to young, inexperienced hires rather than minors.

The comments under the video mostly sided with her. One urged her to take the matter further, writing, “Girl call the labor board.” Another pointed to Nevada law. “In the state of Nevada, it doesn’t matter what they say,” the comment read. A third person said they had a similar shift and claimed they “made $40 off my 6 hour shift.” 

Worker classification can depend on how a job actually works, rather than simply what a business calls its staff. Food service workers have also shared their experiences with long shifts and low earnings on social media. Whether this stand’s setup meets the requirements for independent contractors is unclear.

The video does not say how long she worked there or how many people were affected. It also does not say whether anyone has filed a complaint. The video does not include a response from the business or its owner.