I currently work work as valet at a hotel because i got sick of retail's BS excuses. The company I work for has a contract with the hotel. so even though we wear hotel branded polo shirts, we don't actually work for them. The valet company has set 2 rate for valet. Daily is $18, and overnight is $30. With prices this high, you'd expect us to get a descent cut, but we don't. My base pay is $6 an hour because most of my pay is tips. Most of the time I'd be lucky to bring home more than $50 from an 8 hour shift. Sometimes we just have slow days, sometimes the people who come in just don't tip, but the worst is when your coworkers pocket tips when we explicitly do pool tipping.
To explain to those who don't know, pool tipping is where all of the tips are collected into a lock box that is split evenly among everyone evenly when a new person come on or someone leaves. In my opinion, it's a great system when coworkers don't pocket tips. Sometimes you're stuck doing work were you don't really see tips while someone else is collecting them. With pool tipping, everything evens out, and I'm happy to do it if it means the people running around get their fair share. Luckily management has had a resent crackdown on coworkers who had multiple reports of tip pocketing.
Coming back from that tangent, we have an oversized lot for guests who have cars that are too big to fit in the parking garage. In the old system of things, the overnight price was the same for everyone. Toyota Corolla, Jeep Wrangler, Chevy Silverado, cargo vans, and even a small rental bus where subject to the same $30 per night rate. Now there's a new class of oversized vehicles. Those with aftermarkets lifts, extended beds, over 7 feet tall, dually trucks (trucks with 4 rear tires), and vans. Those kind of vehicles have a $40 per night rate.
With that new rate, nothing really changes. the guest gets charged more to have that same people move their vehicle, and the employees don't get extra money for doing so. Plus, with the rate being more expensive, that's less money that the guest can tip, and will possibly lead more to assume that we get paid more from it because of how much it is and not tip.
It would be something else if those who are certified to drive oversized vehicles (which I am) got a cut from those that fall under the $40 per night rate. And it's not like they can't afford to pay of more. on slower days we often hold between 30-50 cars, and our maximum capacity is almost 200 (assuming no one steals valet designated spots and the oversized lot isn't taken up by hourly parkers). The company is raking in cash, and valet isn't even the only thing they do. So they are raising prices for their bottom dollar, and not passing it along to the ones who make it possible.