What's the protocol for tipping for instructors?

[NW Dive Dawg]

If you liked the course and feel that the instructor is valuable.....take-em to the pub for some burgers and brewski's.....and you'll probably get your money's worth in advice and further education.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Not on the charters I frequent in Florida. The Captains are paid but the DMs / guides are not; they work for tips.

I’m a generous tipper. I strive to need the least help on board so when I tip it’s typically not because of something the crew did for me but moreso recognition of the crew for assessing each customer’s general proficiency and taking care of the less experienced ones.

Tipping becomes a lot easier when you build a habitual relationship with the crews. I can understand being a little reluctant to tip when you’re in a new place and still getting to know how the charter does business.

This is the problem in America. People expect others to pay the salary of their employees in tips.

Glad I live in a place where you don't tip even boat crews. They are paid a salary. Never had a habitual relationship with a boat crew. I'm not on a boat to make friends from crews.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I was working as an instructor for a shop and complained about the fact that I was paid far, far below minimum wage, the Director of instruction said that the law does not require them to pay instructors minimum wage, because they make up the rest with tips. I told him that the law does not work that way. I told him that in such cases (like restaurants), if the tips do not bring the waiter up to minimum wage, then the management has to make up the difference. I told him we almost never got tips, so the fact that we did not get minimum wage was a crime.

He disagreed with my understanding of the law. He said that if I wanted to make minimum wage, I needed to do a better job so I would get better tips.

That was just about at the end of my working for them.

But the point is this--in some shops, instructors are paid like waiters, and if you don't tip them, they don't make minimum wage.

 

[Blackcrusader]

But the point is this--in some shops, instructors are paid like waiters, and if you don't tip them, they don't make minimum wage.

Well they should look for work elsewhere. I've never had a job where I was asked to work for tips.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

When I was working as an instructor for a shop and complained about the fact that I was paid far, far below minimum wage, the Director of instruction said that the law does not require them to pay instructors minimum wage, because they make up the rest with tips. I told him that the law does not work that way. I told him that in such cases (like restaurants), if the tips do not bring the waiter up to minimum wage, then the management has to make up the difference. I told him we almost never got tips, so the fact that we did not get minimum wage was a crime.

He disagreed with my understanding of the law. He said that if I wanted to make minimum wage, I needed to do a better job so I would get better tips.

That was just about at the end of my working for them.

But the point is this--in some shops, instructors are paid like waiters, and if you don't tip them, they don't make minimum wage.

I get it. Not only did I teach for less than minimum wage......but my shop actually paid a flat rate per certified student and only 50% of that rate for students who did not certify. Same amount of work. I quit after I was "talked to" for not certifying two students who in my assessment needed more work.

I've never had a job where I was asked to work for tips.

That explains why you have some difficulty understanding this issue.

 

[boulderjohn]

A lot of people probably believe instructors are getting the bulk of the money they pay for a course. That is only true if you are working with an independent instructor. If you are paying a shop, the shop gets the money and then pays the instructor. That makes it very much like the systems where people get tips.

Just as one example, let's say you and a friend each put up a few hundred dollars for a two dive specialty class that had me as an instructor. We would meet at the shop at some point to go over the academics. Then I would (usually on another day) load up the shop's van with all the supplies we would need and drive about an hour to the dive site. I would unload the van, and we would go through the full two dive experience, taking 4-5 hours. I would then pack up the van, drive back, unload the van, clean gear, and put it away. Once I was done with all the paperwork, I would fill in my payment sheet.

What was the payment? $15 per dive, for a total of $30.

The pay-per-dive system even worked for technical dives, where I was taking people down a couple hundred feet for extended periods.

When I went independent, I charged students less than the shop, but I made much, much more.

 

[Blackcrusader]

That explains why you have some difficulty understanding this issue.

I do understand that I am not stupid enough to work for free and not expect my employer to pay my salary.

I have never tipped an instructor for any diving course and never would.

 

[grantmac]

All of this is why I exclusively use independent instructors

 

[ofg-1]

Tipping an instructor is easy. Just wait until they get their tank on, run up and push them backwards. Its a lot easier to tip an instructor than, say, a cow.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Tipping an instructor is easy. Just wait until they get their tank on, run up and push them backwards. Its a lot easier to tip an instructor than, say, a cow.