“As of 2000, the ban on brothels was lifted, but you still need a license to have one,” says Yvette, explaining the rules on brothels as they currently stand. “The license system is hard – city councils can make it a problem, for example because you only have a certain amount of licenses in relation to how many people live in the city. But the council can also decide where brothels should be, they can say ‘you can only use the license in this street’.”The international press has been reporting a lot lately on how municipalities are becoming very strict on giving out licenses, because they want to keep cities clean . Gentrification means that, if there are fewer brothels to work in, then there are fewer legal jobs for sex workers. And once sex workers don't have as many options, employers no longer have to treat them as well. “The standard has definitely been falling in brothels,” says Hella, “but we’re not going to open our mouths because it could get the brothels shut down, and put people out of a job.”While brothels are technically legal, to be a legal sex worker in the Netherlands you need to be registered with the Chamber of Commerce, to have residency status and a registered bank account, Yvette explains. Then you have three main choices: You can pay to rent a window brothel for a fixed rate each night, where the money you make is for your own administration, meaning you are freelance. Or you can work in a regular brothel or club, which usually takes a percentage of your earnings as commission but won’t consider you a full-time employee. Or you can work from home, which some cities allow – but again, you need a license.It’s all very complicated, I point out. Hella agrees. “When you work in a club and you pay a percentage it’s called 'opting in',” she says, “meaning you’re not a formal employee, you have no labour rights. You wouldn’t have a contract from the brothel stating the services they offer you. You should be allowed to work in several places and the brothel not decide what your hours and rates are, but in actuality those things are enforced in brothels as standard practice.” And how much commission does the brothel take? “Around 50%”, she answers.Hella tells me she’s never worked in a window brothel herself, as those can charge anything up to 165 euros per night to rent out, which she sees as worse than the 50% commission. She has, however, been doing sex work in regular brothels since she was 20.Now 26, she’s recently gone freelance. “I was tired of labour conditions and financial exploitation in the brothels so I wanted to work independently,” she says. “I just work without a license, mostly out of hotels and the very rare brothels that work in the same manner as window brothels. My perfect situation would be having my own space.”