Nail Salon Staff Made $7-An-Hour For Grueling Work Weeks: Lawsuit

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — A nail salon on Waverly Avenue paid an employee as little as $7 an hour during 10-hour days without breaks, a lawsuit claims.

Nancy Basaldua, a former employee of Charming Nails, is suing the business after she was overworked and underpaid during her three years as a manicurist at the 349 Waverly Ave. salon.

Basaldua and her lawyers claim that the salon, owned by Serrano & Sisters Corp., violated federal and state wage laws when they paid her below minimum wage to work more than 40 hours a week between March 2016 and March 2019.

"During the entire period of her employment, (Basaldua) was never an overtime premium for the hours she worked," the lawsuit says. "(Basaldua) never received time off, vacation or meal breaks."

The lawsuit focuses on Charming Nails failure to give Basaldua any overtime compensation.

She was working 10 hours a day, six days a week during all three years she worked there, but was never given any overtime pay, the lawsuit claims. Federal and state law requires employees paid under a certain amount get time and a half for any hours over 40 hours per week.

Charming Nails had Basaldua work hours that were not recorded on her time sheets and and didn't keep an accurate record of her work schedule, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit does not specifically address minimum wage laws, but Balsaldua was making less than minimum wage during all three of her years working there.

When she started working at the salon she was working from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week and making just $70 a day, or $7 an hour, the lawsuit claims. Her pay was increased by $5 a day in 2017 so that she was making $7.50 an hour and again in 2018 so that she was making $8.50 an hour.

Minimum wage was $9 per hour in 2016, $11 in 2017, $13 in 2018 and $15 this year.

Charming Nails did not immediately respond to a request for comment.