Problems with so-called "spas" and "holistic centres"

The Star is running a series on business that advertise themselves as "spas" or "holistic centres" but actually offer sexual services. An assortment of my thoughts on the subject:

1. I think the prices mentioned in the articles are too low. I'm sure the reporters got the prices right, but I think the sex workers themselves should charge more. Why? Someone I know got a legitimate massage from a registered massage therapist, and it cost about $70. Most of the prices listed in the article were less than that. Since the conceit is that sexual services are "extras" offered on top of a massage, it should cost more than an actual massage.

2. The huge problem with this industry is that I don't know how to tell by walking past whether a business is a legitmate spa or whether it's a front for a brothel. They showed pictures of some of these businesses, and I couldn't tell by looking at them that they were brothels. Apparently they sometimes advertise in places where sexual services are typically advertised, but I'm not in the market for sexual services so I'd never look at those kinds of ads. (In fact, I would make a point NOT to look at them out of respect for mi cielito.) However, I may one day be in the market for legitimate spa services. Since I have no way of knowing whether a small local day spa is legitmate or a front, and I certainly don't want to be seen walking out of a place that sells sex, or inadvertently pay a prostitute to give me a pedicure and have some of that money go to a pimp (is there a technical word for pimp?), I'm now likely to avoid all small privately-owned day spas, and instead go to a spa affiliated with a luxury hotel or something. I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want to accidentally walk into a brothel, so this might hurt legitimate small businesses. It also might result in people walking into legitimate small businesses and sexually harrassing their employees.

3. I have decided that I would be perfectly willing to support legislation that legalizes prostitution if and only if it resulted in a system where sex workers made more money than the other people involved. As I've mentioned before, the thing I find squickiest about the sex industry is that people who aren't sex workers make money from it. Someone once told me that pimps are only necessary because prostitution is not legal - I don't know about the economics myself. But if prostitution is legalized, it should be set up to ensure that each and every sex working in a particular organization makes more money per hour/per client than any one of the support workers, if they need or choose to have any support workers. And this should be before any tips. Ideally the sex worker should be the only one making money (well, ideally there should be no market for sex work at all because no one wants to be that pathetic, but...), but if some sort of support worker is necessary, obviously they have to get paid. But in a fair and just world, no one should be making more from sex work than the sex workers, and if we're going to make specific legislation, it may as well be fair and just.