Go-Go Bar Base Salaries Question

[Savittre]

Hi Guys,

 

I don't know, it may sound silly to you, but I have been wondering for some time about this: Go Go Bars hire dancers. My question is this- Do girls work in the Go Go's as dancers, but work under condition that they do not have to go with customers (Because they don't want to do that)- they just dance their shift, sell as many lady drinks as possible, chat with the punters and go home to sleep at 2 am?

 

 

 

I used to think that all dancers went with customers, but I think I read something somewhere about dancers having this option.

 

 

 

My next question is- Do the girls (if any) who dance but don't go with customers receive a smaller base salary from the bar as compared to the girls who DO go with customers?

 

 

 

Does anybody know? I'm just curious. And if they know, where are we talking about, Cowboy, Nana, Patpong or everywhere? Lastly, how much Baht are these base salaries?

 

 

 

Finally, at Go Go bars, both waitresses and Hello girls get about 2,500 Baht per month or is it more now?

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, and any replies!

[greg]

Im not an expert but thinl I have a good idea on the subject.

 

 

 

Regards to the salary I think the dancers get somewhere between 3 - 5000 basic plus commision on ladydrinks and barfines.

 

 

 

Answers to questions like this will vary from bar to bar.

 

With regard to dancers not going with the customers Im sure (and hope) that the ultimate decision is completely with the girl, however you may find at least in certain bars that the managers would possibly frown upon a girl turning down a definate customer if for example the gut was certain to barfine money in hand.

 

Ive been into the same go go bar twice in as many weeks and the mamasan as come over asking which lady I would like before I have spoken to any.

 

If a chose a girl and she did not like me and so no unfortunately this would probably put a black mark against her.

 

f a dancing girl was to negotiate a deal with a bar manager that she dancers and does not go with customers I think her salary would be less.

 

 

 

With regard to Hello girls and waitresses I am not sure of their actual salary and if it is a lot less than the dancers, they do however get more freedom with choosing who they will go home with.

 

Thwe bottom line is a bar manager does not see the bar as a tool for girls to make money from farrangs, but as a way for the bar to make money from the girls and from farrangs.

 

 

[Lord Toad]

Most gogo pay the dancers a monthly salary that is conditional on so many offs. An avergae expectation is around 10. And that is important because a well run gogo will consider that bar fines will pay the salaries.

 

As to dancer wages: Angelwitch pay 10,000 per month, Rockhard 9,000 and I think the Crown group around 7,000.

 

Amounts will vary if the girl does, does not dance topless, or naked when allowed.

 

Most bars will pay a bonus if the girl exceeds a number of offs in a month. Top girls will get 40 offs a month (if they are allowed back after which some bars will not let happen.

[shotover]

Toad is right about not meeting barfine quotas resulting in deductions from monthly salaries. For example, if the monthly minimum barfine quota is 7, and a dancer has no barfines, her salary might be reduced 3,500 baht (assuming the barfine is 500 baht). I think dancers also have minimum drink quotas.

 

 

 

I don't know if go-gos apply barfine and drink quotas to waitresses and hello girls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Straycat]

Hi!

 

 

 

There was a thread about 'Drink & Off Quotas' a while back. An interesting thread, with good info provided from TopCat (straight from the horses mouth so to speak) & some salary figures snucked in there as well.

 

 

 

Straycat

[Guest]

Toadie,

 

Roughly my experience, I was talking to a girl in R2NEP in September 01 who said that the nude giirls get 8,000. the topless 7000 and the bikinis 5000 provided they get at least 5 bfs a month. In addition they get 25 for each LD which can add a further 2000 - 3000 a month and some tips. she got one day off a month, but nothing from the bfs. Still she was making about 50,000 a month with about 20 bfs a month which she thought was a good salary. This was just before the clampdown. I have only been in KK and CM since then.

 

Locals have more experinece than I do.

 

CM

[Savittre]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for your replies, all much appreciated! I think, however, that my main point has been obscured, so if I may restate it-

 

 

 

'My question is this- Do girls work in the Go Go's as dancers, but work under condition that they do NOT have to go with customers (Because they don't want to do that work)- they just dance their shift, sell as many lady drinks as possible, chat with the punters and go home to sleep at 2 am?

 

 

 

It does sound improbable, I know, but I thought I read somewhere that a-go-go's (well, some of them, anyway), when advertising for dancing staff, would post a 'Wanted' sign outside their door, and it would state how much salary a girl could get if she went with customers and how much she could get if she didn't.

 

 

 

The other thing that prompted my post is that a Thai woman I've known for over a year (I originally met her when she was working as a dancer on Cowboy) told me a week or so ago that she now works as a 'Hello Girl' at another place (not on Cowboy, but employs prostitutes). She claimed her salary is 6000 baht per month. I think Hello Girls and waitresses make a base salary of more like 2,500 Baht per month. Big difference there! Plus, she's probably a bit past her prime at 31 years old.

 

 

 

Anyway, I was recently in BKK/ Pattaya for about 11 days, all of which she spent with me. She just didn't go into work. Now, there is a language barrier, pretty high too, but as I understood it, first of all, SHE says she doesn't go with customers , when I asked her if I'd have to pay bar, given that she's now working as a Hello Girl, she clearly said 'NO', and as I understood it, she'd called to say she wouldn't be in to work.

 

 

 

It seemed to me as if all was settled between her and her boss, and I figured when I had to go, she'd go back to work as before. Obviously our relationship started as prostitute-customer and has now mutated into I'm not quite sure what. Anyway, I took her to Pattaya for a few days, we went to a lot of nice restaurants, both in Pattaya and Bangkok, and generally had a great time. But at the end of it all, I figured I should give her some money, but how much is right? In the end, I figured that if she makes 6000 baht per month as she told me, and she's been with me for 11 days, I gave her 3000 Baht- the half months pay that she wouldn't get from her employer. So, she's not losing financially by taking some of her sweet time for me.

 

 

 

She didn't really seem happy with the 3000. I mean, she didn't try to refuse it, didn't thank me or anything. I tried to be polite, I had bought her some Thai music CD's and told her she could now buy a CD player, or just do whatever made her happy with that money.

 

 

 

BTW, she says she got fired from her job when she went back. She e-mailed me and said management told her barfine should have been paid, and they didn't pay her any salary at all- and she had worked there for half a month before I arrived in BKK on August 16.

 

 

 

I have e-mailed her and phoned her, I have asked if she was having problems, I asked her if she had enough money and she has repeatedly said not to worry about her.

 

 

 

I can't help but suspect that if she was having money problems she solved them by going with customers. She is such fun to be with, but has a history of dishonesty with me.

 

 

 

I feel I owe her. I do not want to overpay, ever, but I am equally concerned that the girl is properly compensated- but I'm not getting any feedback from her!

 

 

 

Any comment?

 

 

 

 

[Lord Toad]

If she really told the bar she was with a farang, and not sick, or looking after famaily, they may well have suggested that bar should have been paid. In most bars all girls, or boys for that matter, are bar fineable. Mamasungs usually have a high BF of 1,000, and service girls often cost 600 as opposed to 500.

 

The mistake most people make is to forget, if the girl has been working as a prostitute then she thinks like one. Unless you take her out of the bar and take her on (and agree terms) she will assume that you will pay her. In your case it looks as if the low amount would have been about 500 per day, but she may well have expected more.

 

I can well believe the bar would dismess her if she just desappeared for 11 days, they may think she went off with one of their customers.

 

If she says she is okay she probebly is, she can get another job. Although the decent thing maybe to send another 3,000. Then she will be looking forward to your return (with your wallet)

 

To answer the question about dancers not being bar fined. Generally speaking they can all be bar fined. A gogo stage is as much a shop window of the wares on offer as entertainment. However some gogos may accept a girl who opts out. althpough I suspect it would be farang owned. And may well be a family member.

[JJsushi]

Maybe I can help you. Remember that every bar has it's own rules regarding barfines and duties expected by the girls.

 

 

 

Do the girls who dance have to go with customers? No, but if she doesn't meet her offs or drink quotas for the month to cover her "salary" then she gets he pay "cut" for falling short. Therefore it is to a BGg's "benefit" to go with customers to "earn" her salary as well as the additional money she makes charging the customer for her services.

 

 

 

Service girls do not have to go with customers either, it is optional with them because their "salary" is not dependent upon "offs". However if you want to take them out you still must pay the barfine.

 

 

 

Hello girls make a fixed salary and do not have an off quota. They can go with customers(although it is difficult considering that they are standing outside all of the time) and if they do, a barfine must be paid.

 

 

 

I think in your situation seeing as the girl took off 11 days to stay with you and it can be interpreted from your post that you and her are not boyfriend and girlfriend, she may in some way feel "shortchanged". That of course is her fault for not being clear with you about her expectations and possibly a bit of naivetee on your part about the context of your relationship with her.

 

IMO if you paid the barfine(or gave her the money for the barfine) in addition to giving her the 3000bt her attitude may have been different towards you.

 

 

 

You say that you don't want to "overpay" her but let's be honest what you decide to pay is based on the value that YOU place on her services and company, not what the bar pays her in salary.

 

 

[Guest]

Prostitution in Thailand is illegal (LOL). So I think a contract which implied prostitution is illegal. I cannot imagine any bar displaying a notice which implied prostitution so I think you must have had a mistranslation. I have seen these notices and they normally just say something like bar staff. (I cannot read Thai so I relie on my walking interpreter).

 

 

 

But to return to basics - in many years I have never met a dancing girl in a BKK gogo who would not go with a customer - it is expected and they make little money without it. If they do not reach there 5 or 7 bf a month they will be dismissed anyway. The same rules do not apply to waitresses and hello girls.

 

 

 

I have met girls who dance at Spotlight and at Star6 in CM who do not go with customers, but the whole atmosphere here is much different (and in my view much more fun - sanuk)

 

 

 

A few years ago I met an absolutely stunningly gorgeous creature in a backstreet bar in CM. I posted two reports on the old nanaplaza delphi board (under the name of "Encounter with Poh"). She was new to the system but very great fun. We spent 9 days together, she only asked for the bar-fine. I gave her 16.000 baht in cash and a new wardrobe. Say 25,000 in total. Both of us were happy with that. I learned a great deal from her about Thailand and the CM scene, she was amazingly intelligent but knew nothing, having had no education from the age of 12 - could learn anything and in nine days of continual talking to me, she became fluent in English.

 

Just as one example, we were watching CNN, and she commented, I know who "President Clinton is but who is Mr Dow Jones?" Is he the King of the USA". (I was pressed for an answer!)

 

I think you shortchanged your friend and I am not surprised that she was unhappy, but the board rules do not allow me to comment further

 

 

 

I am having trouble with the UBB interface and will add more later