Providing the background information related to her study, the presenter mentioned that a large number of immigrant women who work in the informal service provision sector receive low wages. Specifically in beauty industry, immigrant women workers receive low wages because they do not have the license; they are hired to perform simpler tasks compared to those with the license. According to her observation as a part of the data collection, the presenter described the demography in ethnic beauty salons as having men of color as owners and women of color as managers and workers.
The data showed that immigrant women workers normally work up to 10 to 11 hours a day and 6 days a week while on busy days of the year, such as festivals, they work up to 100 to 120 hours a week without any extra benefit. Compared to workers with licence who earn 1200 to 2000 dollars a month, immigrant women workers without license earn only 700 to 1000 a month.
The study found that the immigrant women workers remain in the job despite getting low wages which are barely enough for them to make ends meet as they think that the familial situation they are in is close to a family-like environment. Based on the data, some workers were asked by the owners or managers of the salon to perform duties which are not even a part of their jobs, but they still interpret their familiarity provided by people of the same ethnicity as their niceness.
Based on the presenter, this family-like environment reproduces oppression in the ethnic beauty industry.
A participant in the study said,
"They are nice. They treat me like their family member. Love is good, but I wish they paid me more."
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