salaries of cruise workers?
 

Anyone know approximately how much cruise workers, particularly inhousekeeping, are paid? I was channel-surfing last night and came across a cruise show (I think on msnbc) that said cabin stewards get $2500/month. This seems way too high. Does anyone have information on this?

Many housekeepers do make that and even more, but only after guests' tips are included. The base wage for service positions (housekeeping, food service) is generally around $100-$200/month.

Entertainment staff makes between $200-$800/week depending on their duties (musicians, show cast members, cruise directors and managers being at the higher end of the scale, 'event staff' at the lower).

--Sam

Thanks, Sam. I had no idea the base wages were so low.

The base wages may seem low but you have to consider country of residence to understand.

A monthly wage of US$200 would be considered very good in India or the Philippines. Especially for an essentially unskilled worker. The workers also get accommodations, food, and transport in their contracts. So they are making an excellent base wage compared to what they would make in their home country, if they were employed at home.

You also need to find out what they are taking home, not what they are making. According to a cruise line job website:

Tipping personnel

Tipping personnel are the staff with direct contact with the guests who pay them "tips". There are specified amounts of tips per particular positions which are advised to guests prior to embarkation and which vary from one cruise line to another. Such personnel are waiters, busboys /assistant waiters, bar waiters/waitresses, bartenders, cocktail waitresses, etc. Tipping personnel have a small base salary. Most of their earnings are tips. Approximate sample earnings in this group are (in U.S. Dollars per month):


Waiter from $2500 to $4000
Busboy / Assistant Waiter from $1500 to $3000
Bar Waiter / Waitress from $1000 to $2500
Bartender from $1500 to $3000


The applicant must have a good command of English, good work experience and appropriate education to qualify for this group (the latter is not obligatory if the applicant has enough experience).
Non-tipping personnel

Applicants who do not have enough experience or do not have a very good command of English tend to be hired as non-tipping staff. They have a good chance of being promoted to tipping personnel later.

The non-tipping personnel on cruise ships are those who serve the crew, i.e. the lower positions in the passenger area - Staff Waiter/Waitress, Snack Steward, etc. They have fixed salaries without tips and their earnings are from USD 350 to USD 500 per week.


From http://www.cruiselinesjobs.com

I too find those numbers to be a bit high, though possible. Considering most of their expenses of living are covered (room, food, utilities) even if they are sending much of it home, it's still a good deal for some of them.

We met a couple once who were both working on the same ship while grandma watched the baby. The plan was they would work three years as a room steward, working 9 out of 12 months a year, and after three years have enough money saved up to never work again when they got back where ever home was, as the money went so much further there. It could have just been a scam story to get their tips higher, but it was told very well.

Actually this is more common than you may imagine. We have met quite a few staff where both husband and wife work onboard ships. But, in many instances they are on different ships or even different cruise lines. We were on one sailing where our bar waitress was very excited because she and her husband who were on different ships were going to be in port together on the same day.

The main waiter(one who was assigned and primarily responsible for taking care of us during dinner times) told me that he didn't receive any base salary, but got room and board covered by the cruise line. Tips were his source of income.

Many cruise lines have a policy where tips in certain areas are pooled and shared out to include those who never see passengers. One of my former bosses, now retired, claimed to have a policy of never tipping especially on cruise ships.

We tried to talk him out of this habit, but he refused to listen to reason. I became convinced that cruise lines keep track on passengers who do not tip because he always seemed to get the least of everything and was never offered a room upgrade.

I was shocked that a head bar tender on one of my fave cruise lines had a base salary of $50 plus tips. They add 15% but the guests can add additional tips. So if they get nice americans, they do get more. But most other nationalities won't. It's all cultural. Basically they're slave laborers.

Brilliant! Not one of your sentences makes sense. Is that $50 per day, week, contract? Nice and stupid Americans fall for these stories that lead to over tipping the poor servants. Most of the slave laborers are great salespeople and they do quite well with the $$$.

They are not slave labor. Your bartender probably made 50 times more money in his cruise ship job than he could every make in his home country. He probably will keep his job for several contract because he chooses to.

They have a legal contract to work. They make as much and usually much more than they would make in their home country. The are trade offs to working away from your home country for every nationality. The cruise workers always have the option of leaving the job when they wish, just like every other worker. They are not forced to work as slaves, they agree to the long hours and type of work they do.

I have worked as an expat in a multinational enviroment. The Europeans and Americans were there not necassarily for the money since we made about what we could in our home countries. The other nationalities were there for the excellent money compared to their home pay. As one person said, this is more money than I could ever make at home, especially since there are so few jobs.

On my last cruise, our waiter was Fillipino. Said he worked for about 5 yrs, then could take a break for a couple years. You can retire from those jobs, but in the Phillipines, it takes quite a number of years (don't need to get anywhere close to 65 tho). If you have dual incomes, it's just that much faster. He was supporting his family on sole income tho, which I think is more typical.

Tough work, but better than being a maid in an Asian country like Hong Kong or Singapore.

Figure for a cabin steward, they do I'd guess somewhere around 10-15 cabins. On a line where your tips are automatic, I think it's roughly $2-$3/day per person that's going to the steward, so assuming 2 people a room, anywhere from $40-$90/day from the automatic tips. So these numbers aren't actually that hard to believe. And I'd say a reasonable percentage of people will also tip on top of that (I know we tend to depending on service).

Course, they work crazy hours, 7 days a week, always seem to have a smile on their face, and in general are incredibly polite. God knows I couldn't do that job and maintain their attitude.

I was on a recently cruise to the bahamas and I ask one of the waiter how much he gets paid and he said around $1000 per month including food and stay.

Excuse me, but I find it rather impolite to ask ANYONE how much they earn! Did he ask how much you earn?