Strippers sue two Alaska clubs over pay

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Three Alaska women say two Anchorage strip clubs owe them hundreds of thousands of dollars withheld from them as "house fees."

Shanna "Brooke" Thornton, Jennifer Prater and Heather "Kelly" Kidd say the clubs, Fantasies on 5th Avenue and the Crazy Horse Saloon, charged them bogus "fees" to work and cheated them out of overtime, the Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.

After five years of attempting to reach a settlement, Thornton, Prater and Kidd are scheduled for a non-jury trial in federal court Tuesday where U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess will determine if the plaintiffs will get the $324,000 they are asking for.

"It's a shame that it was not settled earlier," the plaintiffs' lawyer, Kenneth Legacki, said.

Thornton worked at both clubs between 2003 and 2006, and Prater and Kidd worked at the Crazy Horse in 2005 and 2006, court documents say.

At issue is thousands of dollars in fees the plaintiffs allege the establishments demanded of them as a requirement of work, the newspaper reported.

Court documents say while making Alaska's minimum wage of $7.15 an hour at the time of the alleged wrongdoings, the Crazy Horse mandated its dancers pay a $10 "house fee" for every hour they worked.

The house fee was allegedly $15 per hour at Fantasies. The dancers were required to tip their "house moms" or floor supervisors, along with DJs and doormen and DJs, court documents say.

In a 2006 interview with the Daily News Prater provided a pay stub showing earnings of $7.41 for 23 hours of work.

There were no comments from anyone connected with either club, the newspaper said.