Posted by North Coast Diver on June 21, 2005 at 13:10:21:
In Reply to: Periodic Tirade on Crew Tipping posted by Walt on June 21, 2005 at 12:48:50:
If there are 20 divers on the boat, and 2 crew, then $10 a day seems reasonable for the USA or $5 for Mexico or the tropics. A lot of times the boat crew consists of the boat owner's kid, and $200 per weekend is a pretty good take for a boat owners kid. I have seen a boat owner and his kid do all the work on a boat themselves, in which case the owner lets his kid take all the tips.
The kid on the boat that I dive always does an exceptional job, handing me my deco bottles as I gear up in the water (since my twin 130s weight a ton, and therefore it makes no sense to try to load up on deco bottles as well before entering the water) and taking the deco bottles back from me before I get back into the boat. In that case I normally give the kid $20 bucks. But he works a lot harder than any of the tank monkeys on a rec boat.
Many uninformed boat owners don't seem to understand the labor laws of California, which require a minimum wage payment for supervised labor. Someone should write a letter to Sacramento about all the labor law violations on dive boats.
Bottom line is that boat owners should pay their crews, and tips are bonuses from happy customers. At least that is what the law says.
End of rant.