If you have ever worked on a tipping position, or if you are still working, you may be aware of how hard it is to work for your money. Often other expenses may be overwhelming and not sufficient based on pay or tips (e.g., uniform purchase, flight tickets, unpaid vacation, etc).  While contracting on a ship may present to be beneficial to many people who apply to work, often after calculating actual pay and tips vs. expenses and time at work or away from family, one may begin to question the benefits. As times change, as well as economy, companies are realizing that to maintain contractors on their ships they too need to make the employment more attractive and cost-efficient.  Therefore, an announcement was made that cruise lines are increasing their daily tip charge.

The increase is meant to be approximately in both RCCL and NCL 95 cents per passenger to be added in the already existing gratuity. This will ultimately increase the gratuity to $14.95 per suit per day for NCL and $12.95 for RCCL. Guests who are vacationing on the brand cruise liners that charge a default gratuity rate can either increase or decrease the amount before disembarking the ship. These and other cruise liners are not unionized companies because of the utilization of contracts with their employees based on terms. The terms of the contracts are generally kept tight by the cruise line companies and no disclosure is generally done.  However, it is not uncommon for employees to work over 80 hours per week without days off for 6-8 months at the time, while the majority of the pay received by the larger percentile of the crew consisting of tips. The only presented disclosure was done by NCL that this is the first increase of the gratuity within the last 6 years. Other companies are also increasing the tip for their crew members, but the general range is 95 cents-$1.

It is well known that the pay and gratuity, as well as other related benefits are not considered competitive within the States from where the majority of the companies function and receive their vacationers.  Thus, it is a rarity that one will see a person from the States working on the tipping positions.  However, they are competitive in the countries from where the contractors actually come to work. The cost-benefit in the long run is, however, still a debate as contractors do have to consider other major expenses, as well as conditions of work environment and being apart from family for an extensive period of time.     

However, changes in the cruise line industry begins with the contracts themselves. Therefore, it is important even as contractors to network with others in order to present information to the companies in a well-informed manner to consider any possible change.  Keep monthly budget of your income as well as monthly expenses, but do not forget those major expenses as well that occur once awhile (e.g., unpaid vacation, uniform purchase, flight tickets, international calling expenses, etc.). As in any business, well-developed and presented information is a key to any change. Cruise companies are a business that functions predominately on the exceptional service of their contractors from around the world.  Thus, if it is not for them, who would serve the lobster dinner while singing and dancing, who would make sure that the room is spotless while the guests are exploring the ports-of-call, etc. Furthermore, advocate for your rights and for your work-environment as a community.  Although this may seem hard especially since contractors in one company work on multiple ships, with today's ability to network on global level it is not as difficult as it once was. Nonetheless, cruise companies are noticing the need for change and implying some changes.