Sure, we tip our waiters, valets, and our bellhops. Tip jars on the counters of coffee shops, diners, and even take-out joints have become more and more usual. It’s common courtesy to give our appreciation for a worker’s assistance. But what about those whose jobs are done anonymously without that personal connection and charm?
Take hotel maids, for example. They take out our garbage, scrub the tubs, make our beds, and vacuum up the crumbs we leave behind. But do we remember to tip them?
The hotel brand Marriott, with the help of journalist Maria Shriver, has decided to leave a friendly reminder in each room for us. Their new campaign, “The Envelope Please,” will place envelopes—complete with the name of the room’s attendant and a short message—in 160,000 hotel rooms across the United States and Canada. The envelopes will encourage guests to leave a suggested $1 to $5 tip a night.
Many businesses pay their workers the federal minimum wage of $7.25, or slightly above, in hopes that their customers provide the rest through tips. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2012 the average hourly wage for a maid was $9.41 (or just under $20,000 a year). Many work long and rigorous hours which fluctuate based on the time of year due to the hotel’s occupancy. For Marriott, less than 10 percent of workers are part of a union. Should these hotel maids have to support a family of four, their wages would be falling short of the federal poverty line at $23,850.
Of course, this all begs the question of whether it should be Marriott’s responsibility to remind us to leave a tip. Some patrons will undoubtedly find unwanted pressure to tip with the presence of these envelopes. Others will argue that it is Marriott’s job—not the guests—to pay their workers fairer wages. Regardless of the situation, the workers’ low wage may cause a divide between them and the people they serve.
In his August 2014 The Examined Life column, Father Bryan Massingale spoke of how a recent stay in a hotel opened his eyes to two distinct nations coexist within our country: the relatively comfortable citizens and those experiencing poverty. “This growing isolation between social classes,” Massingale writes, “imperils the possibility of a shared public life. Isolation fuels ignorance, indifference, and fear…. Such isolation has moved Pope Francis to call for creating a ‘culture of encounter’ with the poor among Christians…. By ‘encounter,’ Francis means sustained relationships with those hidden from our public notice.”
Hotel maids are often “those hidden from our public notice” in both the literal and figurative senses. If the envelopes don’t do anything else, they are there to remind us that every employee deserves a just wage for their work and that it is our responsibility to care for one another. We, as guests, should be more aware of those who aid us. Although it is a slight gesture, a small tip could be how we sustain that relationship. Even if hotel maids are anonymous, their services surely don’t go unnoticed.
Image: Flickr photo cc by Aaron Jacobs
