The old tipping question
- Thread starter LynnB
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I guess the problem that I have with the mandatory tipping - and let's not pull punches here - tipping is mandatory even if you as a paying customer handle lines or help rig people up.
All of the dive operation owners that I have ever met lived ok - some better than others. No one lived in rathole apartments - pretty much all of them lived in at least a townhouse that they owned.
This has been the case in Hawaii, the West Coast, Florida, and the Caribbean.
Since this is the Florida Conch Divers section, what I've seen down here is that divemasters work for free. They have to show up early to prep the boat, do all the stuff that the dive requires, wash the boat, help with the maintenance, and do whatever else had to be done.
In Hawaii, we had a word for people like this - they were called "employees", and they all got a paycheck based on an hourly wage. Now granted it started at $8.00/hour for your basic tank monkey, but it was still a start.
In Hawaii, every employee - full or part-time - is eligible for health insurance. Pretty much everyone I knew was covered by Kaiser Permanente. You could get contacts or a new heart all in the same building. The employers were not being benevolent - this is the law there. As an employer, it wasn't worth whining about since that was how bidness was done there.
Barebone charters down here - basically a ride to the dive site and back - are beginning to approach what a full-service dive with round-trip hotel transportation and lunch between dives on Oahu would run. Yes, yes - fuel had gone up - diesel here is now what I used to pay there 12 years ago.
Nothing is going to change here, and there is an ever-growing of new divemasters just waiting for their chance to get into the exotic world of professional diving so the biz owners can continue to enjoy the fruits of absolutely free labor.
Oh wait that's right - we pay for it.
All of the dive operation owners that I have ever met lived ok - some better than others. No one lived in rathole apartments - pretty much all of them lived in at least a townhouse that they owned.
This has been the case in Hawaii, the West Coast, Florida, and the Caribbean.
Since this is the Florida Conch Divers section, what I've seen down here is that divemasters work for free. They have to show up early to prep the boat, do all the stuff that the dive requires, wash the boat, help with the maintenance, and do whatever else had to be done.
In Hawaii, we had a word for people like this - they were called "employees", and they all got a paycheck based on an hourly wage. Now granted it started at $8.00/hour for your basic tank monkey, but it was still a start.
In Hawaii, every employee - full or part-time - is eligible for health insurance. Pretty much everyone I knew was covered by Kaiser Permanente. You could get contacts or a new heart all in the same building. The employers were not being benevolent - this is the law there. As an employer, it wasn't worth whining about since that was how bidness was done there.
Barebone charters down here - basically a ride to the dive site and back - are beginning to approach what a full-service dive with round-trip hotel transportation and lunch between dives on Oahu would run. Yes, yes - fuel had gone up - diesel here is now what I used to pay there 12 years ago.
Nothing is going to change here, and there is an ever-growing of new divemasters just waiting for their chance to get into the exotic world of professional diving so the biz owners can continue to enjoy the fruits of absolutely free labor.
Oh wait that's right - we pay for it.
Any operation that does this sure won't stay around too long.
Man, I had no idea this would be such a hot button or involved question. How many people here tip rich people for being rich? Come on raise your hands. Do you live in Florida? Drive a car? Anyone here work at a car dealership? I tell you what go to a Florida car dealer and ask them to quote you on a car, any car. OK? Then go to pay for it and you'll find they tacked on a "Dealer Fee." Where does the extra "Dealer Fee" go to? Well it goes straight to corporate headquarters. Yeah the guys that already have money. The point is we tip all over the place all the time but we're not so aware of it as it seems we are about a divemaster? Don't ever go to Vegas if this bugs you.
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