Crew Pay Revealed!

[heavenly]

I always stay off of these tipping threads...until now.

Looking at the subject of crew pay (especially the tipped positions) is going to be a natural consequence to the fact that every time someone talks about adjusting their tips in the negative direction the world that is this board starts screaming about how little they are paid. IMHO, this is just trying to hit both sides of the story.

 

HAL could go a long way in helping us all IF you really could ADJUST your tips, but the only adjustment allowed is to remove the entire hotel charge if you have truly bad service, at least that was the case last year on the Oosterdam. Believe me, when the service is so bad your table only dines in the dining room on two evenings and the waiter is left in San Diego on the return, the service was really lacking.

 

Kudos to world~citizen who very much promotes tipping the staff well AND understands the reason for this conversation.

 

Tips in general are a hot button issue in the US and I don’t think it helped any when every McDonalds and 7-11 started putting out tip jars.

 

Flame away...

[JimVrhovac]

If it is possible would everyone that is so interested in what the crew makes please do the following when you board the ship....

 

Place a note on your cabin door listing GROSS INCOME and NET INCOME and TOTAL ASSETS.

 

This will enable to staff to know who the wealthy ones are and take care of them better so they can get a larger tip because YOU CAN AFORD IT.

 

If you think this request is absurd - so is your request to know their pay

 

One couples opinion

 

Ruth & Jim

[cruz chic]

If it is possible would everyone that is so interested in what the crew makes please do the following when you board the ship....

 

Place a note on your cabin door listing GROSS INCOME and NET INCOME and TOTAL ASSETS.

 

This will enable to staff to know who the wealthy ones are and take care of them better so they can get a larger tip because YOU CAN AFORD IT.

 

If you think this request is absurd - so is your request to know their pay

 

One couples opinion

 

Ruth & Jim

Alrighty then...now we have be told:rolleyes: . It's one thing to post differing opinions but to tell someone what they can or can't think or talk about is another. Like I've said before if it's not your interest...it's not your interest move on from the thread. Your argument doesn't hold any water IMO.

[our turn]

If it is possible would everyone that is so interested in what the crew makes please do the following when you board the ship....

 

Place a note on your cabin door listing GROSS INCOME and NET INCOME and TOTAL ASSETS.

 

This will enable to staff to know who the wealthy ones are and take care of them better so they can get a larger tip because YOU CAN AFORD IT.

 

If you think this request is absurd - so is your request to know their pay

 

One couples opinion

 

Ruth & Jim

 

Well said!

[JimVrhovac]

Two opposite responses

 

Thank both of you

 

Ruth & Jim

[photomikey]

If it is possible would everyone that is so interested in what the crew makes please do the following when you board the ship....

 

Place a note on your cabin door listing GROSS INCOME and NET INCOME and TOTAL ASSETS.

 

This will enable to staff to know who the wealthy ones are and take care of them better so they can get a larger tip because YOU CAN AFORD IT.

 

If you think this request is absurd - so is your request to know their pay

 

One couples opinion

 

Ruth & Jim

I am expected to personally make up for the shortfall in the pay of the room stewards out of my pocket.

 

You notice when I get off the airplane, I don't ask how much the pilot makes, nor the flight attendants. They are paid by the airline, not me.

 

If HAL wants to pay the stewards a living wage, I don't really care how much they make.

 

If HAL wants to pay the stewards a poverty wage, and then suggest to me that I tip, and in fact, suggest it so strongly that they automatically charge me $20/day... then on top of that, CCers want to suggest to me that $20/day is so low that it's practically an insult, and I should tip MORE... now I want to know how much they make.

 

IMO, it is none of THEIR business how much I make, as they don't pay me. (If they want to start paying me, I'd be glad to tell them how much I make!)

[world~citizen]

I can appreciate that this is an uncomfortable topic for some.

 

We enjoy the "experience of a lifetime" aboard a ship - formal night, cocktails, lobster, the whole nine yards. We know we wouldn't be able to afford it if the serving staff was paid a living wage by western standards.

 

So we tell ourselves: yes it is common for many of the servers to have professional degrees and work under conditions that recall some of the labour standards of the previous century. The salary is poor and their hours are long, but they do better here than in the country of their birth.

 

Are we then agents of their exploitation? Nah, far be it for us to take advantage of anyone in a desperate situation. We are their generous benefactors. Its business as usual - and when it comes time to pony-up a gratuity, well, hold on now: "Have they no collective agreement? Have they no salaries? Automatic tipping seems a poor excuse to pick a persons pocket every time we settle an account for a cruise."

 

Is this at all familiar?

 

As has been noted on this thread and others, tipping is an essential component of the remuneration of serving staff. The topic of staff pay is one of more than passing interest to many because it points to the need to support the auto tip which is now added by most lines and sometimes deleted on "principle" by some posters here.

 

In other words, the twin issues of tipping and serving staff wages are inseparable - and we talk about both here to the benefit of those who make our cruises so enjoyable and our favourite cruiselines profitable.

 

I apologize to no one for participating in this thread.

[fann1sh]

I post regularily on another board, where the majority of queries come from people in the U.K. or Australia. Tipping isn't pervasive there, as most of you know. On the tipping threads, many passengers insist they will NOT knuckle under to pressure to conform to North American tipping habits. If I explain the crew isn't paid minimum wage, because labour laws don't apply to foreign flagged vessels, attitudes change.

 

However, if I've been deluded by propaganda and am spreading nonsense, I'd like to know.

 

Here on the Cruise Critic "first time" and "ask a question" boards, many North Americans are outraged to discover their $499 cruise is $750 after taxes and fuel surcharges....then apoplectic when I tell them not to book unless they also budget for the auto tipping. None of my business if they're cheap? But they're asking for advice.

 

I also don't want to wind up booked in the cabin next to them, unable to get ice from my steward who is run off his feet by passengers demanding service, despite the fact they've removed auto-tip.

 

I'm reading this thread because I don't want to give dumb answers.

 

Like World Citizen, I'm also reading because I'm concerned about social issues. My tipping habits aboard ship are far more generous than ashore. I *am* uncomfortable with the possibility/likelyhood my holiday is piggybacked on people who deserve better. Can I redeem myself by tipping well, or should I stop cruising if I want a clear conscience? It's my conscience, so no one else's opinion makes a difference...but facts do.

 

Since the employment ad posted by the OP isn't for a cabin steward on HAL, I'm not sure I've got the facts yet, but I want to keep looking.

[cruisecrasy]

Since most people who work in cruises come from other countries, the salary they make on the ships not only allows them to save money, but also to support their families back home.

For example people from the Czech Republic make around $700.00 a month, while Philippines make around $450.00. That is a huge difference compared to $1,500.

I think the worse part of the job is not the salary or the long hours, but the separation from family and loved ones.

 

If a room steward makes $3.50 per day per person and services 12 - 2 pax - cabins totalling $84 per day then the monthly salary wld be $2,555 ($25,550 for a 10 month contract)..plus room & board...(and taxation can very low & sometimes nil even).. A longer contract & its more and if more cabins & pax...ditto.. and then there can be extra tips also - so likely the dining room waiter also earns approx the same amount and most staff are likely looking to move up in rank & $....

So they will be earning considerably more with more experience and promotions..

 

I do agree that the separations are difficult but u are so correct that these jobs are a necessity to support themselves and their families back home.. Where else are folks with limited education (if any in some cases) & experience or training going to earn the $ they do & not have to fork out $ for room & board either? They have lots of folks from third world over-populated countries lined up to get hired!! Consider please what your cruise wld cost if they had to pay US wages to the staff with US taxation.... :0

Oops... looks like at least 50% of us wld be staying home!

 

I shall hazard a guess here that some people like to know how much the staff earns to judge how much or even if, to tip!

For myself, I am not concerned what they earn, I just tip for the wonderful service I receive..:)

 

Have happy cruisin'!

[world~citizen]

I... Lost a lot of friends, and learned the hard way that what goes on in my head isn't necessarily the truth for anyone other than me.

 

Really? I was wrong once. That was when I thought I was wrong but was really right. :eek:

 

Seriously though, great post. There is a lot in it for all of us.

 

Smooth sailing...

[Host Walt]

The level of rancor and the number of posts that we've had to remove has resulted in this thread being closed to further activity.