This is an interesting bit:

The women who work as courtesans at Sheri’s are hired as “independent contractors” by their employers (Jeremy Lemur, the brothel’s marketing director, provided a statement to Mother Jones that emphasized that specific phrasing multiple times). However, the terms of their actual jobs may not pass the “ABC test,” a legal framework used to determine whether a worker should be considered an employee.

And it's not just the employer saying that they are independent contractors, the courtesans themselves say it several times. Such as:

“A lot of us are artists,” explained courtesan Paloma Karr, who is also a writer and activist. “We have all sorts of other jobs."

There's a lot more to it than just a few quotes, but at least from the article, both sides seem to think they are independent contractors.