wages

Executive Pay Soars While Crew Wages Remain Low

There were two news stories this past week which prove that the maxim “rich cruise tycoons get richer” remains true while the debt-strapped cruise industry continues to struggle. Business Insider reported that Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. CEO Jason Liberty collected $10,760,000 last year. Meanwhile, crew members on

A number of travel publications are reporting that Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is drastically increasing its service charges by an unprecedented 25% for most cabins, effective January 1, 2023. NCL’s new rate for most passenger cabins will increase $4 from the current $16 a cabin to $20 cabin per person per day. NCL’s guests staying

Carnival CEO Compensation Rises Despite Stock Decline and Pandemic Losses

Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald received over $15,000,000 in compensation in 2021, according to MarketWatch. Carnival stock (CCL) had a “two-year decline of 60.4%” while Mr. Donald’s “total compensation increased 35.1% over the past two years” to $15,060,000.

The Carnival CEO’s income increased

Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald and other top Carnival cruise executives collected millions of dollars more in compensation in 2020 than in 2019 via stock awards, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. Cruise Industry News summarized the compensation in an article titled Carnival Corporation Executives Made More Money

NCL CEO Frank Del Rio Earned More Than $17.8 Million in 2019

Norwegian Cruise Line Holding’s CEO Frank Del Rio (photo above, via CNBC, in happier times in 2019) collected $17,808,364 in compensation last year, including $12,201,324 in stock awards and $3,600,000 in incentive plan compensation according to SEC filings. His compensation was down from

Royal Caribbean Cruises’ CEO Richard Fain (photo top in happier days) collected $14,358,919 in compensation in 2019, the cruise line announced two weeks ago in a SEC filing.

Royal Caribbean Announces Layoffs Following COVID-19 Shutdown

Two days earlier, Royal Caribbean announced that it was laying off 25% of its workforce in the United States, due

Several MSC crew members state that MSC is attempting to convince them to waive their legal rights to future compensation by signing a repatriation notification document.

MSC recently requested all of its employees on its cruise ships to sign this notification, which states:

MSC Cruises’ Notification For Crew Members

We care for you,

Yesterday was the "Day of the Seafarer," which is sponsored by the International Maritime Organization ("IMO") on June 25th every year. It was interesting to watch the cruise industry’s trade organization, the Cruise Line International Association ("CLIA"), promote the day on it’s social media pages like Twitter and Facebook.     

Crew members on cruise

According to the SEC, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain (below right) sold 87,488 shares of his RCL stock at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $6,684,958.08.

After the transaction, cruise executive Fain still owns 1,139,613 shares of his cruise line stock valued at approximately $87,077,829.33.

I wrote a similar article

Cruise lines have mastered various way to steal the tips which are intended by passengers to compensate waiters and stateroom attendants.  Carnival’s P&O Cruises implemented a policy this year to withhold forwarding the tips paid by cruise passengers if the crew member’s performance falls below a 92% rating as determined by management. Read Profits Over

Miami’s Daily Business Review reports today that Micky Arison paid himself a "special year-end dividend" of $90,000,000. Yes, that’s 90 million dollars.

Cruise CEO Arison is not the only executive in Florida lining his pockets, as the Review states that other executives in Florida are paying themselves dividends in the range of $250,000 to