The real difference-maker would be to legalize prostitution, and then have them unionize.
I think you may have inadvertently hit on the real reason that prostitution is illegal: the Powers That Be are worried about them organizing. No doubt that unions scare them much more than sex workers do.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.