Quick Links
When regular people imagine what it would be like to become rich, they envision mansions, expensive cars, and private jets first and foremost. Despite that, it could easily be argued that one of the best indications of someone being megarich is when they travel by superyacht.
Over the years, the paparazzi have made it seem like certain stars spend every moment they aren't working on superyachts. For that reason, there is a lot of interest in how much stars like Leonardo DiCaprio pays their superyacht employees.
While it is fascinating to think about what it is like for stars to vacation on superyachts, it arguably is even more interesting to consider what it would be like to work on yachts. Thanks to the Below Deck franchise, a lot of people have become a lot more familiar with the realities of working on a yacht. Of course, there are certain realities about what it is like to work on a Below Deck that most super fans don't know the details about for sure. A perfect example of that is the show doesn't reveal how much superyacht employees get tipped by the rich people they work for each year.
How Much Do Below Deck's Workers Get Tipped?
In society, there are certain topics that people rarely want to talk about in public including money. As a result, most people have no real idea of how much money the people in their lives actually have.
Despite the fact that most people would feel uncomfortable asking their loved ones about their finances, everyone seems to think they deserve to know how much money every star is worth.
Once Below Deck made the show's cast famous enough that people want to know where Daisy and Gary stand today, fans wanted to know how much money the yachties make. Unsurprisingly, there aren't any reports that detail exactly how much each Below Deck star makes.
Despite the limited information about how rich Below Deck's stars are, that doesn't mean that nothing is known about topics like how much the yachties make in tips. Instead, it is possible to fairly accurately estimate how much Below Deck's stars get tipped.
In 2021, boatinternational.com published an article that revealed how much people who charter yachts should pay in tips. According to that article, at one point tipping got so out of control that when yacht workers were tipped less than 25% they could be audibly frustrated.
In an attempt to make things less awkward, a group called the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association issued tipping policy guidelines. According to those guidelines, people who charter yachts should tip between 5% to 15%.
According to reports, people who charter Below Deck yachts pay $55,000 for a group of five to vacation on the water for three days. That means the group of five should tip between $2750 and $8250 if they follow the guidelines.
Guidelines aside, one of Below Deck's stars, Kate Chastain, spoke to Entertainment Tonight about how much the show's stars make in tips. According to Chastain, Below Deck's stars really do expect to be tipped thousands of dollars each time they welcome new guests.
"On a yacht of that size, [a good tip] would be $5,000 a person, for seven days of work. Five grand a crew member, usually. Our charters are a little bit shorter, just so we can make the show, [but] everything else is exactly the same."
"So, it's prorated. We usually get around $2,500, $2,000. Anything less than $1,000 would be depressing, which sounds crazy, doesn't it?"
Since it is impossible to know how many times Below Deck's superyachts are chartered per year, there is no way to definitively estimate how much the show's stars make in tips.
That said, even if the superyachts seen on the show are only chartered ten times per year, that would mean the show's stars would make between $20,000 and $25,000 in tips. On top of that, it seems reasonable to assume that some people who charter the yachts exceed the $2,500 tips that Chastain described.
It also is worth noting that it seems extremely likely that the superyachts seen on Below Deck are chartered a lot more than 10 times per year. Since Below Deck is filmed in warmer locales, there are lots of opportunities to charter the show's superyachts. In fact, Faye Clarke has described what Christmas is like below deck so clearly, the superyachts stay busy even during the winter months.
Why Below Deck Workers Deserve Huge Tips
From the outside looking in, it may seem crazy to think that each crew member makes an incredible amount of money in tips per week. However, during Chastain's aforementioned ET interview, she explained why the huge tips make a lot of sense.
"We're working not just eight-hour shifts, it's like, we're working pretty much around the clock. All the days start to blur together. And during the tip meeting, Captain Lee, will say what we got and I'm always like, 'Is that good? I don’t know anymore… $3,000, are we happy with this?'"
Later during the same interview, Chastain revealed that the tipping process seen on Below Deck is for the cameras. According to Chastain, the people who charter yachts don't give their tips to the captain in such a public and overt way.
"There's always a lineup, just 'cause it's polite. Like, even in Downton Abbey, they all line up. So, I think it's a tradition that’s been around for hundreds of years, but sometimes, I think, instead of traveling with so much cash, they wire the money. So, it's not as dramatic."
Still, Chastain makes it very clear that once Below Deck crew members get their tips, they feel pretty special.
"I've had charters where we anchored in the British Virgin Islands, the guests had left, we're eating leftover lobster, drinking leftover champagne, counting our stacks of cash. I felt pretty special at that moment."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuoZmkYq%2BmuM6wZJ2dk6B6pK3SrWSmmZuaeqq6jK2gqatdqK6trdGyZKmdomLApq3SqKVo