Strippers, other strip club workers in Denver entitled to employment and wage protections, judge rules

Strip club workers in Denver are legally considered workers who are entitled to protections under the city's wage and employment laws, a Denver district judge ruled last week. The ruling comes as part of a lawsuit from several clubs against Denver Labor, a division of the city auditor's office, which ordered the clubs to pay back millions of dollars in wages to hundreds of employees.

Denver Labor launched an investigation into PT's Showclub Centerfold, PT's Showclub, and Diamond Cabaret in 2023 and Rick's Cabaret in 2024. The office found that two of those strip clubs -- Diamond Cabaret and Rick's Cabaret -- misclassified entertainers as exempt from wage and hour laws, violated minimum wage laws, and engaged in widespread wage theft.

"Our office enforces wage theft laws for all industries and protects anyone performing work in Denver. Adult entertainment workers are no different, and we are pleased the courts agree," Denver Auditor Timothy M. O'Brien said in a statement on Monday.

Devynn Dewey, one of the entertainers who works at both clubs to pay for her college tuition, told CBS News Colorado earlier this year that she's owed more than $200,000 in stolen wages and damages.

"This is a systemic issue," she said in February. "I think that's what's really important about this, it will get a lot of other entertainers and other places thinking and organizing together and also get a lot of other clubs understanding that accountability will come. If you are making money off of exploiting and stealing from people, then you have to find a different job."

Denver Labor said on Monday that it's still working to recover the back pay it says the workers are owed.

"The strip clubs have tried every tactic to avoid paying these workers properly and to dodge their wage responsibility. Even if it means creating new legal arguments that lack evidence or are contradictory," Denver Labor Executive Director Matthew
Fritz-Mauer said on Monday. "I'm thrilled the District Court recognized our legal authority to enforce sex workers' rights. We remain steadfast in doing what's right for all workers in Denver."  

Denver Labor ordered the two clubs to pay $13.9 million to over 230 workers in February. The clubs, both owned by Houston-based RCI Hospitality Holdings, sued Denver Labor in March, alleging mistakes in the office's findings, an absence of evidence, and overstepping of its authority.

"Diamond Cabaret and Rick's Cabaret have fully complied with the law. Yet Denver Labor, in a display of unchecked government overreach, continues to demand access to private business records beyond their legal authority, despite the complete absence of any substantiated claims of wage theft," an attorney representing the clubs said, in part, in a statement in March. "These demands are not about justice, they are about control."

After the original publication of this article, the firm representing the clubs issued the following statement about a new appeal:

Diamond Cabaret, PT's Showclub, PT's Showclub Centerfold, and Rick's Cabaret ("Clubs") have appealed two erroneous rulings after the same judge in both Denver County District Court proceedings failed to address key claims underlying Denver Labor's illegal and unauthorized investigations outside its lawful purview of internal City auditing.
Notices of Appeal challenging the Denver County District Court's orders were filed with the Colorado Court of Appeals on November 21, 2025. The Clubs continue to vehemently defend against Denver Labor's overreach and insist that wage-enforcement authority stay within lawful bounds and with agencies legally authorized to investigate, such as the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, not the City's internal auditor.
Additionally, the Clubs continue to pursue Denver Labor and the City for violations of their constitutional rights in their federal court lawsuit. Multiple other retaliatory and unauthorized actions and penalty determinations against the Clubs by Denver Labor and the City remain in the administrative appeal process. The Clubs are confident they are on the right side of the law and will continue to fight to protect their rights and the rights of their workers to work in Denver in the manner in which they choose.
1.
Despite the Denver Auditor's public messaging, the record contains extensive findings that undermine Denver Labor's legal and factual positions. In an administrative final decision on October 17, 2025, which the City chose not to appeal nor publicize, a Denver hearing officer determined - after a two-day evidentiary hearing throwing out a wage complaint and Denver Labor Wage Determination initiated by Denver Post's own cover model from March 2025 and Colorado Public Radio interviewee, Devynn Dewey -that entertainers do not receive "wages" from the Clubs under Denver Labor's own self-drafted definitions and rules. Entertainers are paid directly by customers-not by the Clubs-meaning the payroll records for entertainers Denver Labor is limited to seeking and which are the basis of the two Denver County District Court proceedings on appeal as of Friday, do not exist and never did.
In Ms. Dewey's proceeding, the hearing officer found Denver Labor's penalty determination against Diamond Cabaret was built on an incomplete and inaccurate factual record, and that Denver Labor's factual premise was "materially incomplete." In its penalty determination for Ms. Dewey, Denver Labor knowingly applied laws that only govern employees, even while acknowledging that entertainers are independent contractors, not employees.
2.
Denver Labor has ignored a recent federal recommendation that strikes at the heart of its claimed enforcement power. A United States Magistrate Judge concluded that Denver Revised Municipal Code, Chapter 58's enforcement provisions - where Denver Labor draws all of its purported authority to harass the Clubs - are inconsistent with the Denver City Charter and therefore "without effect."
Nevertheless, Denver Labor has deceptively portrayed the two Denver County District Court's orders as sweeping approval of its unauthorized program. Those rulings, however, arise from the limited discretionary review permitted by Colo. R. Civ. P. 106, of the appealed orders of the hearing officer sued in the Clubs' pending federal lawsuit alleging constitutional violations. Denver Labor's statements glaringly ignore the final decision (not appealed by Denver Labor) by a Denver hearing officer who was not the former boss of Denver Labor's executive director, finding that entertainers do not receive "wages," from the Club in which they perform, and a federal court's conclusion that Chapter 58 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code violates the Denver City Charter.