My 93-year-old mother-in-law is in an independent living facility, which also has assisted living apartments as well. Guessing there are maybe 150 or so units. She pays about $60K a year in rent, and she gets meals, trips to doctors and shopping, and the usual entertainment and activities.
They have sent everyone a letter asking for tips for all the workers (kitchen, drivers, gardeners, handyman, front desk...), suggesting 10-15% of annual rent is appropriate.
It seems like $6,000 - 9,000 in tips for the year is excessive and even inappropriate. I suppose she could estimate the value of the meals and trips and tip on that, but whatever she tips is going to be distributed among all staff.
So she is wondering what she should do, and asking friends what they do. I fear others will say they tip more than they do to look good to their friends.
I'd like to know if this is a common thing that these places do, and if so, if the request for so much money is way too much. It seems to me that the facility owner is merely getting the renters to help pay their costs.
Moderator: you can delete this thread if you like.
The expectation of tipping has gotten absolutely out of control. I just went to a locksmith shop today and had four copies of my house key made, and their credit card machine was actually programmed like a restaurant's and it asked how much I wanted to tip. The cashier averted his eyes momentarily so as to avoid seeing how much I was going to tip, so he didn't see me put a big, fat $0. I couldn't believe it!
Did you see the letter? Are you sure it's not 1-1.5%?
Maybe that all changed after covid, and now with shortage of Staff, and tight budgets.