<p>I believe that I posted it was an unheard of thing in our area. And it is. Of course, it’s on Google if it happens in parts of the country, etc. It’s just that some of us have never even thought to google it because it had never even entered our heads that such a thing existed.</p>
<p>This really surprises me. I wonder if (a) this is a NE regional thing or/and (b) it’s only for rich kids. I’ve lived in most other regions and never heard of tipping camp counselors.</p>
<p>It’s not for the rich kids. Towns that sponsor camps are for everyone. Those that can afford may tip and there are certainly those that do not. We do live in an affluent area and many of these parents take advantage of the affordibility of the town camps because they are really great camps. My daughter has never brought home anything in the way of large tips. The most she ever received was 40.00. She was even the bus monitor for her first year and she ended up on a route that was notorious for NO tippers. She didn’t know this because all the other routes were taken by the more experienced counselorss who knew the more lucrative routes. Likewise, she doesn’t do bus routes anymore.</p>
<p>My D did the bus to and from residential her first two years (after camper, pre-CIT, and CIT). Kid’s throw up on buses. Then sometimes counselors want to throw up too.</p>
<p>mands, you gave an example of why some find this so objectionable. Even though somone posted that the tips are at the end of the camp and therefore doesn’t affect treatment, you write that the more experienced campers leave the “non-tipping” routes to the less-experienced drivers, who don’t know they won’t make much in tips. If counselors weren’t talking and keeping score, the route wouldn’t have been “notorious.”</p>
<p>My friend was just complaining yesterday about how a lot of her campers who just left hadn’t tipped her. </p>
<p>She gets paid approximately $2.00 a DAY, for 8-15 hr work days. </p>
<p>Apparently the camp, a nice day camp, gives them less than minimum wage, saying that the remainder of their deserved money should come from campers’ tips. </p>
<p>Whatever some stingy parents may say, this practice is permitted by the law, and if the campers aren’t tipping them, the counselors are left with their $2.00/day wages, which is completely unfair. </p>
<p>Most of these kids are in college and trying to make some money during their summer. I don’t understand why, if the parent can afford to spend hundreds or thousands on a summer camp, they wouldn’t have the courtesy to follow the camps “recommended tipping” advice.</p>
<p>When I was a summer camp counselor in Indiana while in Graduate School, it was unheard of to tip. I signed up for a salary, and I knew that was my salary, and I knew the schedule and expectations. My kids never went to camp here in Florida, except for my d doing a couple of weeks of dance camp associated with the studio she was a part of. No one I knew tipped nor was it expected. If someone was doing it, we’d have all been “why?” There’s an assumption built it that our fees are paying the counselors and that the counselors know what they’re getting before they agree to teach/counsel.</p>
<p>Tipping would have been appreciated though after one session last year when a report of lice required the counselors to scour the cabins and the kids w/clothes</p>
<p>what I am saying is in the subsequent summers, when dividing the bus routes the experienced counselors remember from the previous years what routes get tippers and which ones don’t. And YES, counselors do talk among themselves.
The tips are for the last day of camp. Bus route is a different story, its an extra job with some pay with various ages of campers that are in diiferengt groups at the camp.</p>
<p>Some parents have requests that the counselors carry out while in their children are in their care and they try to oblige and do what is asked, but sometimes it just comes down to a thankless job in some respects.</p>
<p>I think there are camps…then there are camps. As I said upthread, I worked as a counselor for a YMCA camp for financially needy kids in CA. I was then a counselor at a camp for children that were VERY priveledged in PA. Some were there for 4 weeks, others for 8. Of course there were no tips at the YMCA camp. I went to the 2nd camp in PA not expecting (or even knowing it was a possibility) tips. I loved and was very attached to the kids at both camps, but the kids at the PA camp were more “work” for lack of a better term. They were very needy emotionally. Many were from boarding schools who went straight to camp. In 1970’s dollars, I think I was making less than $1 an hour. I had a bunk of wonderful kids, and during the day I tought them to swim and lifeguarded. It was long hours physically and emotionally, but I loved it. Come parents day at the end of the first 4 weeks I was very surprised to receive envelopes discreetly with a “thanks for making Julie’s camp experience so wonderful.” I was uncomfortable as I didn’t know this was the norm for this camp. I received other gifts, a purse and a necklace from the parents from other countries. Yes, there were a few parents that didn’t tip but to insinuate a counselor would treat a kid differently because the parent didn’t tip is insulting.</p>
<p>My daughter worked as a counselor in a day camp for 2 summers, earning about 50% of minimum wage (the payment was “per job”…). It never crossed her mind to expect any tips from the parents.</p>
<p>Some parents have requests that the counselors carry out while in their children are in their care and they try to oblige and do what is asked, but sometimes it just comes down to a thankless job in some respects. </p>
<p>I just meant that since I think it was more time and work ( although there often is something that fits that bill every session), than usual , a bonus from some where would have been nice- but the camp doesn’t have provisions to do that & I don’t believe tipping is expected/allowed.</p>
<p>We’ve lived in different parts of the country and my kids have camped or counseled at a lot of different camps. Tipping customs varied tremendously and in some areas of the country tipping counselors isn’t heard of. One camp explicitly forbid tips and their counselors were paid pretty well. One camp my child attended passed out a list of about thirty people each parent was supposed to give “from $15-30”. This freaked me out as I would have liked to know such a thing when I was registering, not the last week of camp!</p>
<p>30 people that you were supposed to tip! That is crazy. I think at the camp where my sons worked the expectation was that parents would tip the two counselors who oversaw the group the camper was in; sometimes parents might also chose to tip their child’s favorite basketball counselor or the like too, but that wasn’t expected (that basketball counselor would also be leading a group of campers and would be getting tips in that capacity).</p>
<p>My sons both would have preferred to have received a higher weekly salary instead of tips.</p>
<p>Well, it does matter if you live in those other parts of the country! You came on with some pretty strong words about tipping, assuming that it was universal. From what people have posted and where they are from, this appears to be very NYC-area centric.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of it here in California. I would hope that camps that expect this say something about it in their literature to avoid embarrassment and bad feelings on both sides.</p>
<p>Sister was a counselor at a sleep away camp in the Adirondacks, son is doing that this summer. No tipping. The pay is terrible but they both did it for the same reason; they absolutely love camp life. I love it too but stopped going so I could make more money in the summers. Looking back it, I so wish I had been a counselor instead. </p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure that I did wind up making that much more than my sister because I spent so darn much of what I made where as she ended the summer with nearly every penny she was paid in her bank account.</p>
<p>Edited to add: Things such as taking a camper to get their meds several times a day, working with a camper with developmental issues and so on are simply a part of the job of being a camp counselor. I’m unclear why one would tip a counselor for such things anymore than they would tip a a teacher or an EMT.</p>
<p>Wow muffy333, that’s quite a financial outlay that adds several hundred dollars to the cost of the camp. It’s also very unfair that alamode’s friend makes only $2.00/day and has to depend on tips. Tip expectations should be clear to parents on registration and amount and how many to tip needs to be calculated to add to the cost of the camp. Better yet, as I mentioned before, pay the counselors a fair wage. By a fair wage I mean an amount that would make it worthwhile working without tips. As PMK said, overnight counselors may make less money than at home, but they often end up with the same or more money at the end of the summer. Therefore, the pay may be less but “fair.”</p>