Just off Star....UBP bartenders don't get tips? Or how do they?

[swedish weave]

BINGO! And also LIKE but not FROM the DSC. In the same way the DSC protects the waiters & stewards, so the 18% charge protects the bartenders.

 

 

 

Stephen

 

 

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Will you share with us where and how you got this information ? In the past, NCL has been very elusive in dispensing information about how the funds are handled. Have they changed and where can we get the details???

[fshagan]

There is no way to know how the tip / salary is paid without looking at one of the paychecks.

 

The thing we know is that their total pay is a combination of salary and tips. Bartenders on cruise ships earn from $1,500 to $3,000 a month. It's a contracted amount when they sign up. If they come back and you see them again more than 9 months later you know the contracted amount was probably OK with them.

 

If NCL puts down that $2,900 per month is salary and $100 is tips, or if they put down that $100 is salary and $2,900 is tips doesn't make any difference to NCL or to us. There is no tax advantage for NCL or cost advantage for us.

 

It could matter to the employee, as many countries don't tax tip income. If I was a Filipino bar tender I would want to have as much stated as tip income as I could, because otherwise I would pay high income taxes on the wage.

 

There's an assumption that the 18% can be siphoned off by NCL to increase their profits and they can stiff the staff. The staff has a contract, and they will get the contract amount. My guess would be that NCL has calculated how much the ship will earn in booze, how much 18% of that is, and gives it all to the crew. The adjustment would come by reducing their contracted wage amount to meet the contracted amount. Because that's the way the workers would want it, and it makes no difference to NCL.

 

Some of us feel sorry that a bartender isn't getting a "living wage" from NCL when a Filipino bartender earning $3,000 a month is earning 12 times the average salary in the Philippines. But they are doing very well. A couple tending bar on a cruise line at $3,000 a month each would have more income than 50% of Americans (the median income in the US for a couple / household is just over $51,000, about 2/3 of our mythical couple).

 

I think the bartenders get to keep any extra cash tips, so that's probably why they say they don't get "the 18%". They do and they are lying or mistaken. But it is in their best interest to tell tippers that they don't get any tips. They get more money that way.

Edited July 31, 2016 by fshagan

[pieshops]

Not doubting your BIL's word, but I doubt a bartender is privy to the number of UBP packages sold for a particular week or month and how much money was collected by NCL on those 18% Gratuity and Service Charge fees, then divide it out by bar staff and ever have any idea whether the amount shown on their pay stubs was their share of 100% of the pot or only 1%, with NCL pocketing the remainder as a "service fee".

 

Do they show them the actual numbers and the calculation used to come up with their share? If so, I might believe they are getting this fee in it's entirety, but if not, I will assume that there is a reason they added the words "Service Charge" to the name of this fee, otherwise they would just call it a "Gratuity Fee". So much simpler.

 

Since you have someone on the "inside", can they provide a little info on how the incentive portion, which is where I assume the 18% would go, is derived? Does it fluctuate each paycheck? Fixed amount per contract or per quarter or other pay period?

 

Are you talking about the dsc? Or the 18% from the beverage package or purchased drinks

[punkincc]

Are you talking about the dsc? Or the 18% from the beverage package or purchased drinks

 

The OP's question was on the 18% on the UBP packages, so that is what is being discussed. But whether on a "package" or just 18% on individual drinks, it is one and the same, the money all going into the same pool.

 

Your BIL may see an amount in his paycheck that is designated as being from this pool of money. But my question is how he could ever possibly know whether or not it actually constitutes the full 18% taken in by NCL, unless they are giving the employees the amount in the pool and the calculations done to arrive at their share.

 

Especially when they call it both a gratuity AND a service fee.