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Tipping
- Thread starter TJV
- Start date
Tom
Beta Return
I've never used a sky cap. We always check our bags at the resort. Unless you're referring to the employees at the Resort Airline Desks....and I don't think they can accept tips.
We tip housekeeping when staying at a non-DVC resort. Never tipped WDW Bus Drivers. Usually tip DME driver if they handle our bags on the inbound trip OR if they're extra magical.
We tip housekeeping when staying at a non-DVC resort. Never tipped WDW Bus Drivers. Usually tip DME driver if they handle our bags on the inbound trip OR if they're extra magical.
Disney Stine
Active Member
I tip housekeeping, always. I also tip the magical express drivers there and back. Even though they don't handle my bags going to the World, they do have to drive back and forth the whole day and that can be very tiring. Usually $1 per bag, which is barely anything, but you can really tell they appreciate the gesture.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
We usually arrive late so our DME driver handles our bags and we tip accordingly. We usually leave housekeeping a minimum of $1 per person per day.
ETA... Another suspicious "fact finding" type first post.
ETA... Another suspicious "fact finding" type first post.
DisneyDaver
Well-Known Member
I tip housekeeping a couple bucks each morning when I leave for the day. I have not tipped the bus drivers.
Dj Corona
Active Member
We tip for Magical Express/and or cab going and leaving, as well as the staff bringing and taking our luggage to our room. I can't really say if we've tipped housekeeping, but then again we pretty much make our beds in the mornings, and don't really trash our rooms, and other then new towels on an extended visit, there's not much we really need. Then again we're usually 3 to 4 adults, with no kids, who spend way more time in the parks then the room.
EDIT: After double-checking with the family, we do usually leave something for housekeeping at the end of our trip.
EDIT: After double-checking with the family, we do usually leave something for housekeeping at the end of our trip.
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BigRedDad
Well-Known Member
Tipping is a choice not a necessity. I don't understand why everyone thinks that everyone needs a tip. I get paid to do my job, no matter what it is. I do not get a tip for doing it. Now, I have to save A LOT of money for a trip to WDW. It averages out to about $1,200 per person for a week. You already pay for everything that is offered: DME, housekeeping, etc. Do not think that these are "free" services. These are services already included in the inflated rates you pay.
Housekeeping: It is part of the room rate to clean up after you. If you are extremely above average on the mess you make, then you may want to leave something extra. If you keep the room clean already, paying additional for something you already paid for is a waste.
DME: This is not a free service. You pay a premium for Disney resorts for this service. The service is baked into the room rates.
Baggage handlers: If you have someone bring your luggage for you, it is a choice to tip. I will tip them if I am not bringing my luggage myself.
If you are so concerned with tipping, you should tip EVERY CM you see, every bus driver. What amount would you give each of them? Even if it was only a dime ($0.10), that would be another $100 a day in just tipping.
Here's a tip...stop the tipping and require companies making insane profits to provide living wages.
Housekeeping: It is part of the room rate to clean up after you. If you are extremely above average on the mess you make, then you may want to leave something extra. If you keep the room clean already, paying additional for something you already paid for is a waste.
DME: This is not a free service. You pay a premium for Disney resorts for this service. The service is baked into the room rates.
Baggage handlers: If you have someone bring your luggage for you, it is a choice to tip. I will tip them if I am not bringing my luggage myself.
If you are so concerned with tipping, you should tip EVERY CM you see, every bus driver. What amount would you give each of them? Even if it was only a dime ($0.10), that would be another $100 a day in just tipping.
Here's a tip...stop the tipping and require companies making insane profits to provide living wages.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
If every menial task paid a "living wage," nobody would ever have an entry level job as companies race to automate those positions that are now more expensive than they're worth.
Further, tipping is incentive-based compensation. I don't tip because of some obscure rule where I feel like I have to. I tip to encourage and reward excellence. If a position pays $10 per hour, every slob working that position will collect his $10 no matter how awful he is. Tipping ensures that those who are good at what they do and/or work hard are compensated accordingly. In your "living wage" example, everyone gets the same paycheck regardless of whether they work hard. When there's no incentive to work hard, people STOP working hard.
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
I found this series of blogs an interesting read a while ago http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-1-overview/ Most wait staff don't pay attention to the size of the tip until the end of the night, they don't know if you tipped them poorly and link that to the service they gave you. Generally if someone is a bad worker, they are a bad worker no matter how much you tip and a complaint to a manager does a lot better than just leaving a poor tip.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
That's a great idea. Think about how much each CM would bring home if each guest tipped each of them a mere dime a day.
Let's call this the Dime-A-Day initiative.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
They might not link individual tables to how much that table tipped, but they still know in the back of their mind that, in general, better service means better tips.
Though I think restaurants are a poor example anyways because 15% to 20% has become pretty much automatic. Even terrible service is probably going to yield a 15% tip, minimum. In that regard I think we need MORE tipping, not less. Zero tip for poor service and 30% for excellent service or something like that.
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
Or do the same as we do in UK, pay a reasonable wage to all employees and tip a bonus amount of zero to 20% depending on service. Over here I usually just round the bill up slightly so I give around 10% on average service, but I also know I don't have to tip.
If tipping is needed to make up the wages then it should be an automatic service charge on every bill and you need to speak to a manager to raise concerns to have it taken off, therefore if staff are consistantly bad the restaurant can deal with them.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
But that leaves you with a dichotomous scale of "bad" or "good enough." Still no incentive for excellence.
Kit83
Active Member
For a zero % tip to be culturally acceptable a decent basic wage would need to be paid, a tip would be a real tip and not the servers wage, then we could give whatever tip we felt was deserved .
Many peoples opinions on this subject are clouded by whether they are in or have been in the service industry, they want to keep the status quo, as the system works for them, but not all ! Reform is a long way off, sadly for the many servers that suffer at the hands of poor tippers and low paying employers .
How difficult would it be to just pay servers a decent wage and tip on top if deserved ? ....very difficult it appears when we have a system that benefits some while others suffer. There is no consensus for change . Menu prices would rise you say ...at the moment you pay a hidden cost on the menu its the tip !
englanddg
One Little Spark...
For the record, because tipped wage in the US causes a lot of confusion for even Americans, much less people from countries where tipping is far less common (or even not a thing at all).
The US has two layers of wage law. First Federal Wage Laws, which all states much comply with these numbers as the minimum (and many do). Second is State Wage Laws (which trump the Federal laws ONLY if they exceed the Federal Wage requirements.
With respect to tipped employees, they are hired with an hourly wage of $2.13 an hour. In many states, the tipped wage is higher. In Florida, for example, tipped wage is $5.03, and their standard minimum wage is $8.05. So, Florida exceeds the Federal Wage standards, and therefore those rules trump the Federal Wage Laws (in this respect).
The terms for tipped employee wage are broken into "cash wage" (in FL, 5.03) and "Tip Credit" (in FL, 3.02).
Tipped employees are, by law, supposed to report their tips to the employer. This is for a variety of reasons.
1) The employer must report the tip income to the Federal Govt (and to the State and Local Govt if there is a State or Local Income Tax...in FL there is not) for taxation purposes.
The caveat to this is that many tipped employees who get cash tips do NOT report said tips to their employer, and rarely on their tax filing. This means they are tax cheats, in this respect. Not judging, just stating a fact.
This is not an issue for tips that are applied through a credit system (as they have to be reported into the POS system).
2) Tipped wages are SEVERELY limited. The people working at QS restaurants, for example, even the cashiers, cannot be paid tipped wages. They must be paid at least Federal or State Minimum Wage (whichever is higher).
3) If the employee does not make at LEAST the Federal or State Minimum Wage (note, not the cash wage of 2.13 or in FL the cash wage of 5.03) after reporting all tips, then the employer MUST make up the difference. This is the Tip Credit.
So, lets explore what that means. Lets say your are hired as a tipped employee in FL. You work for 1 hour, but it's a slow day and you only have 1 table. And, they are bad tippers and only leave you $2 in tips.
This means the employer must pay the extra $1.02 to get you to the state minimum wage. If they do not, they are in violation of the law.
Now, how it really functions is that this is done weekly. So, lets say you are a tipped employee in FL, you work for 40 hours at 5.03. You cash wage is 201.20 for the week. State Minimum Wage would require you make at least $322. The employer will add your reported tips to your cash wage. Lets say you made 100 in tips that week. The employer is required to pay an extra 20.80 to bring you to minimum wage.
However, if you made more than 120.80 that week, then the employer is required to pay nothing more (though they still have to report any tipped earnings above and beyond that 120.80.
Now, for a further scenario, lets say the tipped employees average 5 tables per section, with an average tip of $2 per table and a table flip of 75% per hour. That means, in a 40 hour week, they'll have served 175 tables, and made $300 in tips.
So, the employer will start at the end of the week with 201.20 + 300 = 501.20. The employer is NOT required to pay any more because you have at least earned the actual minimum wage. This comes out to an actual take home wage of $12.53 per hour, or $26062 per annum.
Now, lets take a suggested tip rate of 10 - 15% (which is about average in the US, and use a TS restaurant at Disney. The average ticket should run about $80 for a family of 4, you'd think, but I'll use $50 per table for this illustration, just to make it ultra fair (though, I know that just me and the kiddo can top $50 pretty easily at most TS restaurants at DIsney. So, with a 75% table flip (which isn't unreasonable for Disney, where the restaurants are generally packed to the gills), and a section of 5 tables, lets say they pay an average 12.5% (meeting in the middle) in tips.
The tip earnings will come out to $1093.75. This is added tot he $201.20 cash wage, so the weekly earnings are $1294.95, or 32.37 per hour or $67329 per annum.
Now, of course, very few tipped employees are making this, and there are other factors involved as to why (but not the simple economic math of it).
1) Tipped employees rarely get a steady 40 hours per week (this is the key issue). Most of the time they'll get between 20 - 29 hours, and there's a few reasons for this, but the latest motivation is such. It keeps them as "part time", which means that the employer, under ACA (aka Obamacare) are not required to cover their health insurance costs. It's also just been a general restaurant practice for at least two decades. You tend to hire younger people (students) for these positions, so it's a win win.
2) Tables don't always flip at a 75% rate...many times it's slower
3) Restaurants don't always book up, so your section may not be at capacity
4) Some restaurants / managers will assign smaller sections
5) Some people won't tip at all, while others will tip more than 12.5%, others will tip less (or nothing)
6) Tip pooling practices (not universal, but not uncommon) can complicate the matter
7) Tip-outs (Paying non-tipped employees a portion of the tips) is illegal, but is not uncommon.
8) As employees are known not to report all of their cash tips, employers are generally allowed to make a reasonable cash tip assumption when calculating the wages. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head for that, but it also complicates the matter if the employee actually didn't receive that much in cash tips.
So, that's how it works, and my final point is that in NO WAY can a tipped employee be paid less than the State Minimum Wage (which must meet or exceed the Federal Minimum Wage) by their employer.
Make sense?
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It wasn't tipped properly the last time and @wdwmagic doesnt pay it a "living wage".
