Starting November 1, 2024, Royal Caribbean International will raise its daily gratuities by fifty cents per person, per day. This announcement comes as part of a broader trend across the cruise industry, where gratuities seem to climb year after year. The updated rates will bring standard stateroom gratuities to $18.50 per person, and suite gratuities to $21.00 per person. While this might seem like a small increase, it marks the second hike in the past 12 months, raising questions about where these additional funds are going and how they impact the hard-working crew.

Royal Caribbean has stated that these gratuities are "shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel services teams." However, unlike past announcements, where specific amounts were allocated to different departments, the company has become more vague about who receives what portion. Back in 2016, when Royal Caribbean raised gratuities by 55 cents, they clearly laid out the breakdown: $8.30 for the dining room team, $3.85 for stateroom attendants, and $6.85 for suite attendants. In the past 8 years, there has been a generalized statement that offers no clarity on the actual distribution.

This lack of transparency is troubling. While the cost of living and inflation can justify raising gratuities, the real question is whether these increases are benefiting the crew as much as they should. In theory, they should be seeing a significant boost in their earnings as gratuities climb. 

But is this the case?

The evidence suggests otherwise. Despite a steady rise in gratuities—from $9.75 in 2010 for standard staterooms to $18.50 today—there is little indication that crew members' wages have risen in proportion. Back in 2010, a waiter could expect to earn between $3,000 and $3,500 per month. By today's standards, factoring in the gratuity increases, their salaries should have skyrocketed. Yet reports from crew members indicate that this isn’t happening. Despite rising gratuities, there's no sign of equivalent wage hikes for the staff.

Moreover, in the past eight years, there has been no announcement or communication from Royal Caribbean, or any other major cruise line for that matter, informing their crew that these gratuity hikes are directly benefiting their paychecks.

But It's not just Royal Caribbean, almost all major cruise lines have shifted to a more ambiguous explanation of how gratuities are allocated, adding departments to the list of beneficiaries but failing to disclose how much each actually receives. Guests are essentially left to trust that their gratuities are being fairly distributed, with little insight into whether the hard-working staff they interact with daily are actually seeing the benefits.

This ongoing pattern raises a critical question: If guests are paying more each year, where exactly is the money going? Is it being diverted into other operational costs rather than into the pockets of the crew? If cruise lines want to maintain the goodwill of their passengers and respect the hard work of their staff, transparency is a must.

The cruise industry must do better in terms of both communication and fairness. Increasing gratuities without clearly stating who benefits without specifically stating how much is misleading at best. 

We have written on this topic in the past and we suggest you read this article comparing the gratuities over the years.