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5 Responses to “Do cruise personnel get paid purely on tips?”
They get paid a salary but it is very very low. The ammount they make varies on cruise line.
They rely mostly on tips, just like any normal waitress or waiter.
I know that the print shop position on Carnival pays about 40k-50k/year. Which is great considering you are not on the water for more than six months at a time (international labor law, give or take a month). But you have to be on call like 14 hours a day, however your only doing about 8 hours of work a day. Also, your room and food is usually included while your on the boat so you have the potential to save a lot.
Labor laws? Once out at sea there are few labor laws at apply. In many ways ships at sea are still like little nations. Maritime law allows a lot stuff that wouldn’t be allowed on land. That’s one reason why you can gamble and buy things duty free on ship.
As a rule -the cheaper the cruise line the more your cruise personal rely on tips. For the people who wait your tables or clean your rooms, tips make up 90% of their wages. I’m not kidding. It’s a hard life on a cruise line and why do think so many of your cruise line staff comes from poor and third world nations?
Before tips, salary for most employees is about $40K. In some cases, the tips match the salary, making it worthwhile to work aboard a cruise ship.
I have been on 4 cruises 2 to the med, 1 to caribbean and the other to eqypt, i know on the med cruises that the malaysians members of staff only get a salary of £40 per week and rely solely on tips to make up their wages this i know for a definate as we bacame friendly with the waiters and they were telling my husband and i all about it.