A new campaign launched by the hotel chain Marriott-a
company that reported $13 billion in revenue last year-encourages
customers to leave a tip for the maids who clean hotel rooms. What could
possibly be objectionable about that?According to the
company-review site Glassdoor, on average, Marriott housekeepers make a
paltry $8.32 per hour. (The site pulls from a relatively small sample
size). The campaign, titled "The Envelope Please," will place envelopes
in rooms at hundreds of Marriott hotels with the intent to remind guests
that a tip of $1 to $5 per room, per night, is customary.
It's
true: As long as hotel workers are paid peanuts, you should tip them.
But the answer shouldn't be gratuity, it should be giving them a raise.
Because the company can't be bothered to pay its own employees a
reasonable living wage, it's hoping to guilt its customers to chip in a
little on top.
Tipping is a broken system. Remember the last
time you were totally going to give the delivery guy a few bucks, but
didn't have the cash? Or you decided to slip the maid a five after she
smiled at you on the way out? Service workers' paychecks shouldn't be
subject to the whims of their customers. For cash-strapped restaurants
with widely understood tipping customs, the model is defensible on some
level, if less than ideal. If you're a multi-billion-dollar company and
you think your employees deserve a little more money, you should be
giving it to them yourself.
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