Pandemic Strikes Hard at California's Nail Salon Workers and Owners

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eighty-eight percent of California’s nail salon owners do not have enough customers to meet business expenses and rehire workers, and most salon workers are now taking home less than $400 per week. That’s according to a new study from the UCLA Labor Center and the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, outlining the “tremendous emotional and financial strain” of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nail salon industry. California’s nail salons, which employ roughly 100,000 licensed manicurists, are primarily small businesses staffed principally by women and Vietnamese immigrants and refugees. We’ll talk about the challenges salon workers and owners face in the state and the practices and policy solutions that could help them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:50.3	Music From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, many in California's nail salon industry are struggling. Nearly 90% of nail
0:57.7	salon owners say they don't have enough customers to meet their expenses, and most salon workers
1:03.4	say they're now taking home less than $400 a week, barely enough to cover food and rent. We look
1:10.0	at the challenges unique to this sector that are making it hard for workers and owners to deal with the pandemic's second year, were upended by COVID-19 and California's shelter-in-place order in March of 2020.
1:47.0	After salons were allowed to reopen, they were forced to close again as cases surged.
1:53.0	The cycle of openings and closings took a massive financial and emotional toll on workers and owners,
2:00.0	say researchers at UCLA's Labor Center
2:03.1	and the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. Even after reopening in early 2021, many
2:09.4	in the industry, which employs some 100,000 licensed manicurists in the state, say they're
2:15.6	still really struggling. In this hour, we learn why.
2:19.3	Joining us is Jung Nguyen, organizing manager at California Health and Niel Salon Collaborative.
	...

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