Time to nail the truth on The New York Times' nail salon exposé

When The New York Times published a front-page exposé on wage theft at nail salons in May, it rocked the industry.

The piece alleged that thousands of manicurists at New York State's 3,700 salons had had their wages withheld illegally. Furthermore, it stated that "Asian-language newspapers …" such as Sing Tao Daily and World Journal were "rife with classified ads listing manicurist jobs paying so little the daily wage can at first glance appear to be a typo".

See also: Dirty secrets of the nail salon exposed

The article, which claimed to have interviewed more than 100 workers in the industry, but quoted few of them, sparked a multi-agency government task force investigation. Subsequently, nail salon owners, most of whom are Chinese and South Korean immigrants, were required to buy a wage bond for staff: meaning if a salon didn't pay the minimum wage, the employee could claim their loss on their insurance.

Richard Bernstein, however, smelled a rat. The former New York Times journalist - who co-owns two nail salons with his China-born wife, Li Zhongmei - put forward evidence in The New York Review of Books that the story was based on "flimsy" data and "sometimes wholly inaccurate information".

For example, Bernstein and his wife reviewed ads in the two Chinese-language newspapers named going back months and found no jobs offering a salary of US$10 a day, as reported. Most offered salaries of US$70, plus tips, with transport costs covered.