Our Work
The California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative was founded to address critical health issues faced by nail salon workers, such as chronic asthma, skin rashes, and reproductive health problems. Ongoing research has shown that manicurists working up to 70 hours per week were exposed to harmful, toxic chemicals found in nail products they used to pamper clients on a daily basis. In California, 82% of over 127,850 active licensed manicurists and cosmetologists are Vietnamese, many of whom are low-income, immigrant, or refugee women of childbearing age.
Manicurists who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant face a greater risk for health complications, such as gestational diabetes or miscarriages. Nail salon workers also commonly experience work-related physical discomfort, such as body pains or back aches.
In addition to toxic chemical exposure, nail salon workers experience wage theft and labor violations. Manicurists are low-wage workers and are regularly misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees, which denies them access to sick time, overtime, workers’ compensation, breaks, and other benefits.
Our Approach
Using a multi-tiered approach that blends community organizing, grassroots policy advocacy, and community-based research, the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative builds power of the nail salon community to develop solutions that benefit the nail salon workforce, their families, small immigrant- and refugee-owned businesses, and their communities.
OUTREACH & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Through outreach and training, CHNSC educates and organizes nail salon workers and owners to build their knowledge and skills on health, safety, and workplace rights. We also provide leadership development and believe in organizing to transform communities, organizations, and individuals to create healthy and just communities and social justice movements.
POLICY ADVOCACY
We advocate for health, safety, and better working conditions in the nail salon industry at the federal, state, and local levels. Our members engage in grassroots policy advocacy to address issues in the nail salon community, including reproductive justice, environmental justice, workers’ rights, immigrant rights, and language justice.
CHNSC formed the Member Policy Committee with our Aunties who have been a part of the leading efforts in policy change across California. In this committee, our Aunties lead and provide insight from their lived experiences, acquire essential skills, and develop an understanding of policy frameworks to mobilize around issues impacting the nail salon community.
RESEARCH
We lead research and data collection rooted in community engagement, which guides our organizing, policy advocacy, and movement-building efforts. Working with research partners such as the UCLA Labor Center, we highlight the challenges and barriers nail salon workers and owners continue to face, including with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research helps pave the way for our policy and program work with our members and community.
CHNSC also coordinates a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), comprised of researchers and academics based in California and nationwide who have critical expertise on salon worker occupational health and safety, health outcomes, green chemistry, reformulation, greening the industry and salons, etc.
CIVIC AND VOTER ENGAGEMENT
We utilize civic engagement as a powerful tool to uplift our communities to educate them on relevant current issues, such as advocating for workers’ rights, informing them on the power of their vote, and promoting healthy and safe work environments.
Our canvassing team is made up of current and retired nail salon workers, known to us as the “Auntie Squad.” Their first-hand expertise and experiences provide direct insight into the needs of our community and create a more comfortable conversation between our canvassers and our community. They understand what goes on in the industry and are determined to advocate for a healthy workplace and educate other salon workers, and help continue to build power in the community of Vietnamese refugee nail salon workers.
MOVEMENT BUILDING
CHNSC is part of a national movement to improve the health and working conditions of low-wage immigrant workers. Since its inception, we have supported research, outreach, and base-building strategies with organizations nationwide and in the Vietnamese community. Our vision is to transform the nail salon industry from a low-wage and toxic industry to one that is safe and healthy for all and that recognizes the rights and dignity of all workers.
We are a founding partner and co-convener of the National Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance with Women’s Voices for the Earth. Founded in 2007, the Alliance is a national network of partners committed to advancing the health, safety, and rights of salon workers through strategic collaborations, policy and industry advocacy, and federal agency engagement.
Sponsored & Co-Sponsored Bills
Our Coalition Partners
