“Selena the Stripper” has danced in Los Angeles-area clubs for about five years, which included a period marked by sharp drops in pay from fewer customers during the pandemic on top of stage fees eating into wages.

Unmet lap dance quotas have often left some exotic dancers in the red, and many say they’re forced to lose weight or even face race discrimination in the form of less desirable shifts. Increasingly complex employment agreements—thanks to new enforcement rules in California—could mean fewer hours for some.

Dancers also fear that they have little recourse if they are injured or harassed.

Selena, who asked to use a stage name to avoid retaliation, is among the dancers leading an effort to unionize strip clubs in the state in an effort to improve pay and working conditions.

“These clubs and major franchises don’t like the idea of workers taking over. It sets an example and shows what’s possible,” said Selena, the president of independent union Strippers United. “Strippers are treated like they aren’t valuable and they’ve internalized that. They don’t always see themselves as deserving of rights.”

The labor push in California comes against the backdrop of a mountain of litigation over wage and hour practices, harassment, and misclassification that led to multimillion-dollar settlements against clubs across the country. Several courts have ruled that strippers...

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