Marriott underpays workers, tells you to tip
Marriott International launched a program this week called "The Envelope Please". It will begin placing envelopes in its guest rooms in up to 1,000 hotels reminding guests to tip their housekeeper. The program has been developed in conjunction with women's charity A Woman's Nation and spokesperson Maria Shriver. Example news coverage: at CNN.com, at NPR, at Chicago Tribune.
I don't know about you but I find this program absurd and morally offensive.
Not sure why? Stick with me a moment....
The basic premise behind this program is that 1) hotel housekeepers work hard and are underpaid, so 2) we, the traveling public, must take responsibility to fix their pay by tipping.
I'm conditionally willing to accept argument #1. Hotel housekeepers do thankless, dirty work. Though figures given in some of the articles above indicate they earn a median wage of $9.21/hour. That's above federal minimum wage (currently $7.25/hr) and seems reasonable for entry-level, unskilled labor. But, like I said, I'm willing to entertain the argument they should be paid more.
The question, then, is who is responsible for paying workers? Some people, like Maria Shriver and this discreditable women's rights organization, believe that we, the consumer public, should be shamed into tipping them to make up for their low pay. I have a better solution: Employers are responsible for paying their workers fairly.
A crazy notion, I know.
Maybe if we're really crazy we could even enshrine it in a law somewhere.
Oh, and before any argues Marriott can't afford to pay them better, consider that in its most recent annual report Marriott reported profits of $626 million, an increase of 9% over the previous year, on revenues of $12.8 billion. A wealthy corporation won't pay its own workers fairly, and now they team up with this craven "women's rights" organization to tell you it's YOUR fault.
WTF?
I don't know about you but I find this program absurd and morally offensive.
Not sure why? Stick with me a moment....
The basic premise behind this program is that 1) hotel housekeepers work hard and are underpaid, so 2) we, the traveling public, must take responsibility to fix their pay by tipping.
I'm conditionally willing to accept argument #1. Hotel housekeepers do thankless, dirty work. Though figures given in some of the articles above indicate they earn a median wage of $9.21/hour. That's above federal minimum wage (currently $7.25/hr) and seems reasonable for entry-level, unskilled labor. But, like I said, I'm willing to entertain the argument they should be paid more.
The question, then, is who is responsible for paying workers? Some people, like Maria Shriver and this discreditable women's rights organization, believe that we, the consumer public, should be shamed into tipping them to make up for their low pay. I have a better solution: Employers are responsible for paying their workers fairly.
A crazy notion, I know.
Maybe if we're really crazy we could even enshrine it in a law somewhere.
Oh, and before any argues Marriott can't afford to pay them better, consider that in its most recent annual report Marriott reported profits of $626 million, an increase of 9% over the previous year, on revenues of $12.8 billion. A wealthy corporation won't pay its own workers fairly, and now they team up with this craven "women's rights" organization to tell you it's YOUR fault.
WTF?