#2242
MDW - 1/24/2015 8:40 PM
I’d say tipping should be like for any other service. If the instructor is working for himself (you are paying him for the course), that is equivalent to the owner of any other business. They should be charging you what they need to make on the course. If you booked the class with a "dive shop" rest assured the shop is keeping almost all the money and paying the instructor next to nothing (or actual nothing) for doing all the work.

My standard is if your barber owns his barbershop, don’t tip. If he just work there for someone else, tip. If your waiter owns the restaurant, no tip. Regular underpaid waiter, tip.

So, if you take a class from an independent instructor, no tip unless he was truly extraordinary. If you paid a shop for the class, give the instructor some bucks (because the shop did not). Or better yet, don’t buy classes from shops where they keep all the money and have instructors doing all the work more or less for free.