by Rory G. McGlasson
The beauty industry in America is booming, but underneath its surface lays a foundation of corruption that makes the industry look very un-pretty.
That's because many established beauty salons are seeing their reputations washed down the drain, due to the illegal maneuvers of competitors and employees.
"The days when you could go down to the salon and get Mary Sue to cut your hair for 30 years have gone," said Lois Burak, Owner of Beauty Salon and Day Spa, Inc., Frankford Ave, Philadelphia. "Corruption has taken over the business and its been going on for years now," She charges.
Miss. Burak, whose Beauty Worx Salon is a prominent leader in the Frankford business community, has provided hair, nail, and spa treatment to customers from her highly professionally trained staff for over 15 years. However, during
this time many of her past-employees have moved on to new pastures, poaching regular clientele and taking thousands of dollars worth of professional time and experience with them. The reason for doing this is because Burak pays her employees legally!
"I have a vacancy sign in my window all the time, it's so hard to find the right people to fill the positions," said Burak. "They expect to be paid under the able and not to be taxed, once we tell them that we're a legitimate business they are not interested.
Burak says that Sometimes she gets people from various employment agencies that just turn up wanting Burak to sign there attendance form. She says they turn up for an interview with no intentions of wanting a job, sometimes they are not even industry qualified.
"People turn up for interview with no professional qualifications, we offer traineeships, but because we run our business through the books they aren't interested." She said. "These people go work under the table and they aren't properly qualified, I know if I was getting my hair done I'd expect the person cutting it to be properly qualified."
It's a catch twenty-two situation for business owners like Burak. They can take on new staff, invest in their training, whilst putting them on good wages and commission, but they could still be hit in the pocket when there employee can just leave, taking the clientele that wasn't there's in the first place with them.
"Something has to be done about this," says Burak. "I have no problem with one of my employees wanting to better themselves, but it should not be at my expense. We cannot afford to pay for and train our staff for them to go move on and take our clientele with them."
It has become commonplace for beauticians to work under-the-table, paying no taxes, thus, cheating the taxpayer for a long time now, according to Jon Gonzales, a Californian Beauty Consultant, who says this is something known as "the underground economy."
"This is not just a problem in the Philadelphia area, but a problem throughout the country, says Gonzales. "Because of these measures salon owners have been forced to enter into booth rental (illegal in PA) just to survive. A worse issue surrounding the Industry is that many salon owners are resorting to pirating and recruiting other salon owners' experienced staff members, offering booth rental options and higher commissions, which is threatening the job stability and livelihood of the entire beauty profession."
Gonzales added, "We have educated, trained and let hairdressers go into business for themselves with very little risk, at the expense of the former salon owner. If you want to go it alone and start your own business with risks involved and build a following through positive word of mouth, hard work, and advertising and marketing for new clients, do it ethically and honestly", he urges. " If you're good, people will find you. Soliciting clients from a former employer is unethical and unprofessional, and casts a cloud over an employees future - especially if they brought no clientele with them when they first began a job."
Gonzales and Burak share the opinion that these kinds of scenarios are plaguing the Beauty Profession and they are calling for lawmakers to create a professional code of Ethics and Honesty, which they claim would benefit everyone.
These claims should be considered by Gov. Mark Schweiker, who at last year's State House Economic Summit, singled out the beauty industry as not "real world" training for "real-world jobs."
"I commend and support local unions providing education to create real world jobs, but to dismiss the beauty industry as not being a real-world job is not fair to the legitimate salon owner," said Burak. "While the training in Cosmetology schools leave a lot to desired, I don't believe that eliminating Government financing from beauty schools is the answer.
"A better screening process for applicants might be in order. Laws, which are already established, must be enforced in order to help the economic situation. It is most unfair of the Government to put down an industry while doing nothing to enforce its own rules."
Burak is just one of many Beauty Industry owners in the region hoping the Legislature starts taking the industry more seriously before it spirals out of control before it's too late.
"If a question were put to some of the new 'budget' nail salon owners that have popped up all over the place in recent years, if they thought the beauty industry wasn't a sound investment, they'd laugh their heads off," said Burak. "It's an industry that is thriving. Check out how many new hair and nail salons are popping up in Philadelphia alone."
Cutlines Scanned.