Tipping might be one of your concerns when travelling to another country especially in places where the culture is quite different than yours. Depending on where you are from, you will have a certain experience regarding Tipping, you might be familiar with the US culture where tip is appreciated or you might be accustomed to the Japanese culture where tip can be sometimes regarded as impolite. Thailand is one of those places where they have their own culture of tipping and since we are here on Thaihand platform, we will, of course, focus on the tipping culture when it comes to Thai Massage. In this article we will discuss why we should tip Thai Massager and how to do it the right way.
How much does a Thai Massager earn?
First of all, it is good to know how most Thai Massagers in Thailand earn their money. It is quite a sad thing that massager career does not have the best career path. This means that massagers do not have stable growth, attractive benefits or an annual pay raise. Most massagers earn THB 100 (around 3 USD) for an hour that they provide services. From our survey, the average service hours for a massager is four hours per day, that means they earn around THB 400 (around 13 USD) on their working day. As you can see that they pay is pretty low and they only get paid when they work, so if they are sick on a particular day, their income will be zero.
How do Thai Massagers perceive Tips?
As you can see that their income is pretty low and unstable, Thai Massagers really appreciate tips from the customers. One thing you should know that the tip will go directly to the massagers, not the store owner. So, if you are having a really great and relaxing massage, do not hesitate to give your massager some tips to let him/her know that you appreciate the service. The next question that will definitely come into your head is that how much should you tip? Keep on reading to find out.
How much should you tip your Thai Massager?
As we have mentioned, Thai Massagers have pretty low income so they to appreciate tips. Perceiving them as ordinary working people, the more money they get, the happier they will feel right? However, as a customer, you should know how much to give to make them feel happy, most Thai Massagers feel happy if you give them around 15% of the massage price per hour. If you are having a THB 300 per hour massage, then THB 45 is pretty enough to make the massagers smile. However, this totally depends on your level of satisfaction, if you feel that 15% is too low and want to give more, feel free to do so! It will even make the smile a lttile bit bigger.
To sum it all up, Thai Massager do appreciate tips as their income is not that high and stable. The amount of tip depends your level of satisfaction to the service, feel free to give as much as you like if you really enjoyed the Thai Massage, otherwise, 15% of the massage price per hour is enough to put a smile on the massager’s face.
