Opinions on tipping please.......

[imsulin]

spongerob - I'm not getting your $3000.00 a month thing. I also thought that crew were required to send home a portion of their monthly wage. Can you clarify, please? Thanks.

[98Charlie]

karen_cpa - The quote from the Celebrity Web site was in response to someone indicating that they were unaware of any suggested reduction of the tipping guidelines on any cruise line. I read that the same way you do. The suggestion by Celebrity is that the first and second occupant of the cabin tip full and any additional under the age of 12 tip ½. In the case of the OP it is a moot point since the childern would be over the age of 12.

I would also read that to mean that if you had three adults in a cabin that all three would tip fully.

imsulin - I think that the $3000 figure is their approximate monthly income. From that they must pay for personal items including some or all uniform expenses. I am unaware of any requirement by the cruise lines that they send any money home. What spongerob is saying is that the take home pay for this example of a cruise worker is the same amount as a US citizen that earns $75,000 per year.

Sidebar: According to WorldVision, the average annual income in the Philippines is around $2,762. The average in the US is $26,977. What would you do to earn more than 12 times your national average wage?

[spongerob]

Yes, exactly that, and thanks 98Charlie. The salary for many crew members might be just a few dollars per day at most. I've heard numbers like $30 per month for some. For all intents and purposes, they derive all of their income from tips. Since there is no withholding or FICA, what at first glance appears to be a rather small amount is equivalent to a much higher, fully taxed US wage.

Completed:
Sea Princess, Royal Princess, Grand Princess (3X), Caribbean Princess, Golden Princess

[cruizintexas]

We have prepayed our tips. Does the cruise line let these people know or should we ask for a credit and do the tips ourselves? Help. I don't want these people thinking that we have stiffed them. Thanks for the great boards.

*10/03* Elation! Do as you please I am cruisin'!
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[imsulin]

Yes - your cabin steward, dining room waiter, and other service staff know that you have pre-paid your tips.

Thanks, 98Charlie. I swear I read a post about crew members having to set aside a % of their salary (not tips) here on CC, but doubt if I can find it. What about the requirement on some lines about pooled tips, though? Doesn't that affect their monthly tax-free income?

[imsulin]

Couldn't edit, so will add: If the gross income of the service crew is around $3000 tax-free dollars a month, does this explain the American service crew that is practically non-existent on cruise ships (NCL US registered ships, and management positions aside)? Do American cruise line employees have to pay into Soc. Sec./ FICA and IRS, and are they exempt from state/county/local taxes? Inquiring minds want to know!

[98Charlie]

imsulin - I have never seen or heard any reference to a mandatory "send some money home" policy on any cruise line. That certainly doesn't mean it doesn't happen and there may be good reasons for the cruise lines to have a policy like that. However, there is a lack of real information from any of the cruise lines as to their actual policies.

I have read on some posts that all tips are pooled. Others say no. Then there are the posts about "if you tip in addition to the auto tip (on lines that have auto tip) the crew member gets to keep the extra but the auto tip goes into the pool [B]BUT[/B] if you cancel the auto tip then everything that you give to the crew member is required to be turned into the pool. Etc., etc., etc.

Most of this information seems to come from "my steward told me" and "my waiter told me". Unfortunately, they (the steward and/or waiter) have a vested interest in telling you (sincerely) whatever information may yeild the best tip from you. Also, with the cruise lines so tight lipped about how tips are handled on their end, it could be that the crew member will only say what they are told to say or risk the loss of a job that pays ten times what they could make back home.

As far as the tax implications for an American crew member, I would think that the cruise lines would do what they could to make the job as attractive as possible. OTOH you can bet that the cruise line is not going to do anything that would reduce their profit margin just to attract American crew members.

[kes]

I live in the Philippines at the moment - the average figure is about correct. Min Wage is about Php7,000 approx. US$127.00 a month.
Philippines biggest export is its people mainly domestic staff and ship crew. Most OFW's (overseas filipino workers) send most of their income home to support their families. OFW's income is included in the Philippines GNP.

I also come from Australia and we don't have a tipping culture due to our labor and min wage laws it is not needed as much as the US. We will only tip in Australia if the service is good and just the loose change or a couple of bucks. We do realise that the US is different but sometimes when there we forget or don't know who we are suppose to tip.

[B]Kes[/B]
[img]http://www.info.com.ph/~ptagle/sea18.gif[/img]

[spongerob]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by imsulin:
does this explain the American service crew that is practically non-existent on cruise ships <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That would be a great topic on its own! I asked a casino dealer why there were no American dealers. She told me that Las Vegas dealers make far too much money to make working on a ship worthwhile. I assume, too, that they would be fully responsible for all normal taxes.

Completed:
Sea Princess, Royal Princess, Grand Princess (3X), Caribbean Princess, Golden Princess

[Spicey477]

I am a little late in my reply as I just discovered this nugget of a thread![img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I will be the voice of a tipped person working in foodservice (vs the other poster who is in foodservice management, and therefore a nontipped position)..............

As a waitress, I get children come up to me all the time with the bill in hand to give it to me. I guess the kids think I am nice or the parents want to give the kids something to do. I think it is cute and in no way do I think of it as degrading that a child gave me my tips.

Also...just a reminder for those of you who don't know (you have no idea how many people don't know!!), in the US, servers get paid $2.20 an hour. Most of the time, you don't even get a paycheck because it is all going to taxes. And, that whole tax-free income thing is fun while it lasts, because at taxtime, we tend to get bit in the butt on taxes and almost always owe (a lot, considering normal 19 year olds don't owe).

This is some info I dug up on a certain cruiseline's website. I worked for a division of this company and would have loved to work for their cruiseline but I had heard that they "sort of" choose against American workers. I guess I could go work on NCL's Pride of America now,huh?[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I had Canadian friends who worked as servers on this cruiseline and had a blast and made some really good money especially with the exchange rate at the time (1998).

-Crew Members can expect their schedules to be based on a 70-hour/7-day work week. Time off is very limited-even when the ship is in port.

-All Crew Members are responsible for paying their own taxes. US citizens or residents have Federal taxes withheld from their checks. Other Crew Members must check with their own country's tax service to find out what guidelines they should follow.

-Crew benefits include medical coverage while on contract. GAP insurance is available for purchase for coverage between contracts. Crew accommodations, meals, and uniforms (except shoes) are provided to the Crew at no expense.

[imsulin]

Good post, spicey! There are times when crew members are working when no passengers are aboard, and they are not in a position to be tipped, but they have to work anyway. Most Americans are not willing to put in the required days and hours that cruise lines demand in terms of the typical "service" positions. And, yet, you will find mostly Americans in the Children's Programs, and management positions, because they will have scheduled work hours. There's a news post from CC about how the Pride of Aloha (NCL - all American staff) had to cancel a short cruise due to "crew exhaustion". I wouldn't work 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, unless I had some [B]major[/B] monetary compensation! Most of us wouldn't. It's still an interesting topic, though, and I've noticed another trend: When I first started cruising...back in the late 70's - early 80's, most of the crew were West Indian. Now they are mostly Filipino, Indonesian, and Eastern European. Don't get me wrong...we always had great service, but I'm wondering why the change. Someone told me (way back when) that drug smuggling had a lot to do with it, but please don't take this as the gospel truth. Thanks.

[DFritz]

There are American Casino dealers. On our Navigator cruise last September one of the cruise critic meet and minglers was Jason from Kansas City and a casino dealer on a cruise ship on vacation at the time.

Part of the lack of Americans on cruise ships is the american inability to work 14 hour days for months on end without a vacation. My husband is in management here in the States working 70-90 hour work weeks and he has a hard time finding an employee who will work for minimum wage for 8 hours a day. The average american seems to be of the opinion that they won't work for less than $40,000 per year.

The average waitress or farm laborer makes less than $3.00 per hour in this country. Most would be willing to work on a cruise ship for $100 per month plus tips and their room and board. I know I would. I don't have a $100 left at the end of each month after paying for my room and board.

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'Til my next cruise

[Spicey477]

Imsulin and DFritz,
I hear you about American's and their working conditions and foreign working conditions! I worked for the above said company in France for a bit and it was amazing to see the differences. Overtime? Nope. Working more than your 35 hours (ps, they are paid for 39!)? Nope. Very interesting, but it is part of their psyche, just as ours is to work hard and to make as much money as we can to afford the "American Dream".
As much as I would complain here about working 70 hours a week, I think your surroundings have lots to do with it. And, I don't mean living in a 4 person bunk (more like closet) at the bottom of the ship, yet you are in the Caribbean, as the surroundings. More like, I don't want to wait tables on weekend nights here or until 3am because my husband works 9-5 (more like 6-6, he is in the Navy), or my family wants to get together on Sunday for a bbq. I think if I (or many of us) were on a ship to make money, we wouldn't have many problems working those 70 hour weeks because that is what everyone else is doing! You aren't really missing out (unless you count on what your family is doing back home). It is a great way to make a lot of money (even by US standards) in a short amount of time, with a 2 month break at the end to spend with your family. I can think of worse jobs that pay much less.