From the LasVegas SUN:
Today: August 27, 2006 at 7:26:33 PDT
It's a myth, now park it
Join us in the hunt for Las Vegas' legendary $100,000 valet
By Marshall Allen
[SIZE=-2]Las Vegas Sun[/SIZE]
You hear the whispers as soon as you come to town: Valets can make six figures - just for parking cars.
Valets have achieved mythic status in Las Vegas. We watch with envy as they slide behind the wheel of cars the rest of us feel lucky to look at. They're congenial, get paid to exercise and appear liberated from the daily grind.
But most of all, we think about their money. A valet smiles, opens a car door, offers a greeting - and gets cold hard cash. Smile-greet-cash. Repeat. One valet compared it to mice running circles and being rewarded with pieces of cheese. Green cheese.
Champion boxer Floyd Mayweather is known to tip $100 in and out at the valet stand. Retired NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice is just as generous. Most drivers are not as flush with cash, but $3 tips are standard on the Strip and $5 per car is common.
Valets are skittish about discussing tips, maybe because they fear the IRS or because broadcasting assets could slow the currency flow. Some refuse outright to talk about money, which probably makes the rest of us more prone to gossip. It's routinely asserted that valets can earn $100,000 a year. Mostly tax-free. To park cars.
But challenge this common belief and you'll find that no one knows a six-figure valet. Perhaps it's an urban legend, yet another exaggeration in a city that hypes fantasy until people believe it. Like the Las Vegas version of the Yeti, but in a spiffy uniform and sporting a tan. If this mythical being exists, we wanted to spot the well-heeled car-parker. Here's what we found in a quest to verify the existence of the six-figure valet.
<CENTER>• • •</CENTER>
Valets love their jobs and know they're lucky to have them. But they also hustle for the money. At the highest rated hotels, guests must not be delayed when checking in or leaving the premises for a day trip. Thus, the day shift is consumed with shuttling cars for guests, who may be stingy because they expect the service. That's a lot of running in a place like the Venetian or Caesars Palace, which have 4,000 and 3,300 rooms, respectively. Valets at the Venetian may have to jog up four flights of stairs in 100-degree heat to retrieve a car.
The swing shift brings in the dinner and show crowds, while the graveyard shift means running cars for club-hoppers. The partyers usually are more generous with the tips, valets say. But one never knows. A driver in a Rolls-Royce has stiffed the valet. People who own clunkers can be generous.
Anthony Curtis, president of lasvegasadvisor.com, says the valet was already a famous figure in local lore when he first came to Las Vegas in 1979. Curtis said he has heard people say the six-figure valet exists, but he has never known one. The job has always been coveted, he said.
"It's a hard job to get, a fairly juiced-in job," Curtis said. "That adds to the mystique. You can't just walk up and say, 'I want to do this.' You need to know someone, or be diligent. It's almost like a job that's held out to special people."
There are rumors that prospective valets pay bribes to gain entry into the elite corps. But no valets interviewed for this story had heard of this practice. Instead, the juice is nothing more than knowing the right person to get the job.
Curtis said valets can always use their position to "freelance" - make connections to escorts, drugs and other underground or illegal activities. A company called Heartthrobs VIP Referral Program, which facilitates private engagements with strippers, claims to pay bellmen, cabdrivers and valets $100 per referral.
"Certainly there's a supplementation of income for those who choose to go that route," Curtis said.
Curtis added that it's a small percentage of valets who supplement their income through underground means, but they also generate the buzz that contributes to the mystique.
The median individual income in Clark County is about $37,000. That number sounds paltry when one drives up to the grandeur of Wynn Las Vegas, the Strip's newest resort . Pull into the $2.7 billion resort and you might be greeted by Julian Hapitana, a valet who's been at the hotel since it opened in 2005. Hapitana was a valet for four years at the Golden Nugget before joining the staff at Wynn. He's got lots of energy - he's also a bell captain at the Flamingo.
Wynn sounds like a car lover's dream. Hapitana said he has driven a Lamborghini Murcielago, priced about $300,000, and the Aston Martin Vanquish, which runs about $260,000. The Rolls-Royce Phantom - another $300,000 car - also puts in appearances at Wynn.
Stylish wheels often deliver generous gratuities, according to Hapitana. From what he hears from friends at other properties, tips are tops at Wynn. A $100 gratuity is rare, but not unheard of, and $5 is standard.
"I have people asking every day at Flamingo to get in to Wynn," he said.
Even with the Wynn's wealthy clientele, it would be impossible for a valet to make $100,000 a year, Hapitana said. Wynn valets run between 1,500 and 1,800 vehicles a day, and valets pool tips on every shift and divide them. Like other high-end properties, Wynn's reputation is based on its consumer ratings, and guests must not be kept waiting. To maintain the highest levels of service, the valet stand is usually overstaffed with about 20 people, Hapitana said.
"With more hours and more people, from a valet point of view, that's not good," he said. "They cut into the money."
Wynn valets earn about $9 an hour and $100 a shift in tips, Hapitana estimated. That works out to about $44,700 if an employee works every week of the year. Supervisors get a larger cut of the tips, so Hapitana estimated they could make $50,000 tops. Supervisors at Wynn and other properties declined to comment .
Trevor Johnson said he loves being a valet because he's paid to work out, has flexibility to gamble and because he loves the cash. Johnson, 28, is a former personal trainer who now valets at the Venetian and various restaurants in Las Vegas. He has known valets who make $70,000 or $80,000 at places like Mandalay Bay or New York-New York, but never six figures. At the Venetian, tips are pooled, but ticket writers - the person who greets you and gives you the claim check - get a much smaller cut than runners and supervisors.
"It all depends on where you work, to be honest," Johnson said of the money. "Even some of the casinos that aren't busy but have less people working the shifts are making more money."
Marissa Chien is a good person to dispel the myth of the six-figure valet. She's a gambler and tax accountant whose clients include bellmen, cocktail waitresses and valets at high-end hotels. Valet pay varies greatly depending on the property, she said. The highest paid employees anywhere are the doormen, who can easily clear $100,000 annually, Chien said.
Valet supervisors at the top properties can earn $15 an hour plus $60,000 annually in tips, she said. That's $91,200 a year. Of course, they claim only 25 percent of the total on their income taxes, she said.
The IRS is under fierce criticism from the service industry for auditing employees who participate in its tip compliance program. The program uses a formula to determine how much tip-income employees report for federal tax purposes. The formula results in massive underreporting, Chien says, so she has "zero sympathy for them whining about tip compliance." The unreported tips are also spared a 7.65 percent Social Security tax that's assessed on other wages, she said.
Mike Magnani represents about 550 valets at properties like Caesars Palace, Luxor and Paris Las Vegas as chief executive of Teamsters Local 995. He said the tip compliance rate ranges from $2 to $6.50 an hour tacked onto the wage, depending on the property and shift. He said the rumor that valets earn more than $100,000 is simply not true. But they do make a good living - about $60,000 a year - and have one of the best middle-class jobs, he said.
So it appears the myth of the six-figure valet can be debunked, though it will certainly live on in Las Vegas lore. A Bellagio valet called the rumor "ridiculous." "Everyone inflates everything" in Las Vegas, she said .
Marshall Allen can be reached at 259-2330 or at marshall.allen@lasvegassun.com.
Today: August 27, 2006 at 7:26:33 PDT
It's a myth, now park it
Join us in the hunt for Las Vegas' legendary $100,000 valet
By Marshall Allen
[SIZE=-2]Las Vegas Sun[/SIZE]
You hear the whispers as soon as you come to town: Valets can make six figures - just for parking cars.
Valets have achieved mythic status in Las Vegas. We watch with envy as they slide behind the wheel of cars the rest of us feel lucky to look at. They're congenial, get paid to exercise and appear liberated from the daily grind.
But most of all, we think about their money. A valet smiles, opens a car door, offers a greeting - and gets cold hard cash. Smile-greet-cash. Repeat. One valet compared it to mice running circles and being rewarded with pieces of cheese. Green cheese.
Champion boxer Floyd Mayweather is known to tip $100 in and out at the valet stand. Retired NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice is just as generous. Most drivers are not as flush with cash, but $3 tips are standard on the Strip and $5 per car is common.
Valets are skittish about discussing tips, maybe because they fear the IRS or because broadcasting assets could slow the currency flow. Some refuse outright to talk about money, which probably makes the rest of us more prone to gossip. It's routinely asserted that valets can earn $100,000 a year. Mostly tax-free. To park cars.
But challenge this common belief and you'll find that no one knows a six-figure valet. Perhaps it's an urban legend, yet another exaggeration in a city that hypes fantasy until people believe it. Like the Las Vegas version of the Yeti, but in a spiffy uniform and sporting a tan. If this mythical being exists, we wanted to spot the well-heeled car-parker. Here's what we found in a quest to verify the existence of the six-figure valet.
<CENTER>• • •</CENTER>
Valets love their jobs and know they're lucky to have them. But they also hustle for the money. At the highest rated hotels, guests must not be delayed when checking in or leaving the premises for a day trip. Thus, the day shift is consumed with shuttling cars for guests, who may be stingy because they expect the service. That's a lot of running in a place like the Venetian or Caesars Palace, which have 4,000 and 3,300 rooms, respectively. Valets at the Venetian may have to jog up four flights of stairs in 100-degree heat to retrieve a car.
The swing shift brings in the dinner and show crowds, while the graveyard shift means running cars for club-hoppers. The partyers usually are more generous with the tips, valets say. But one never knows. A driver in a Rolls-Royce has stiffed the valet. People who own clunkers can be generous.
Anthony Curtis, president of lasvegasadvisor.com, says the valet was already a famous figure in local lore when he first came to Las Vegas in 1979. Curtis said he has heard people say the six-figure valet exists, but he has never known one. The job has always been coveted, he said.
"It's a hard job to get, a fairly juiced-in job," Curtis said. "That adds to the mystique. You can't just walk up and say, 'I want to do this.' You need to know someone, or be diligent. It's almost like a job that's held out to special people."
There are rumors that prospective valets pay bribes to gain entry into the elite corps. But no valets interviewed for this story had heard of this practice. Instead, the juice is nothing more than knowing the right person to get the job.
Curtis said valets can always use their position to "freelance" - make connections to escorts, drugs and other underground or illegal activities. A company called Heartthrobs VIP Referral Program, which facilitates private engagements with strippers, claims to pay bellmen, cabdrivers and valets $100 per referral.
"Certainly there's a supplementation of income for those who choose to go that route," Curtis said.
Curtis added that it's a small percentage of valets who supplement their income through underground means, but they also generate the buzz that contributes to the mystique.
The median individual income in Clark County is about $37,000. That number sounds paltry when one drives up to the grandeur of Wynn Las Vegas, the Strip's newest resort . Pull into the $2.7 billion resort and you might be greeted by Julian Hapitana, a valet who's been at the hotel since it opened in 2005. Hapitana was a valet for four years at the Golden Nugget before joining the staff at Wynn. He's got lots of energy - he's also a bell captain at the Flamingo.
Wynn sounds like a car lover's dream. Hapitana said he has driven a Lamborghini Murcielago, priced about $300,000, and the Aston Martin Vanquish, which runs about $260,000. The Rolls-Royce Phantom - another $300,000 car - also puts in appearances at Wynn.
Stylish wheels often deliver generous gratuities, according to Hapitana. From what he hears from friends at other properties, tips are tops at Wynn. A $100 gratuity is rare, but not unheard of, and $5 is standard.
"I have people asking every day at Flamingo to get in to Wynn," he said.
Even with the Wynn's wealthy clientele, it would be impossible for a valet to make $100,000 a year, Hapitana said. Wynn valets run between 1,500 and 1,800 vehicles a day, and valets pool tips on every shift and divide them. Like other high-end properties, Wynn's reputation is based on its consumer ratings, and guests must not be kept waiting. To maintain the highest levels of service, the valet stand is usually overstaffed with about 20 people, Hapitana said.
"With more hours and more people, from a valet point of view, that's not good," he said. "They cut into the money."
Wynn valets earn about $9 an hour and $100 a shift in tips, Hapitana estimated. That works out to about $44,700 if an employee works every week of the year. Supervisors get a larger cut of the tips, so Hapitana estimated they could make $50,000 tops. Supervisors at Wynn and other properties declined to comment .
Trevor Johnson said he loves being a valet because he's paid to work out, has flexibility to gamble and because he loves the cash. Johnson, 28, is a former personal trainer who now valets at the Venetian and various restaurants in Las Vegas. He has known valets who make $70,000 or $80,000 at places like Mandalay Bay or New York-New York, but never six figures. At the Venetian, tips are pooled, but ticket writers - the person who greets you and gives you the claim check - get a much smaller cut than runners and supervisors.
"It all depends on where you work, to be honest," Johnson said of the money. "Even some of the casinos that aren't busy but have less people working the shifts are making more money."
Marissa Chien is a good person to dispel the myth of the six-figure valet. She's a gambler and tax accountant whose clients include bellmen, cocktail waitresses and valets at high-end hotels. Valet pay varies greatly depending on the property, she said. The highest paid employees anywhere are the doormen, who can easily clear $100,000 annually, Chien said.
Valet supervisors at the top properties can earn $15 an hour plus $60,000 annually in tips, she said. That's $91,200 a year. Of course, they claim only 25 percent of the total on their income taxes, she said.
The IRS is under fierce criticism from the service industry for auditing employees who participate in its tip compliance program. The program uses a formula to determine how much tip-income employees report for federal tax purposes. The formula results in massive underreporting, Chien says, so she has "zero sympathy for them whining about tip compliance." The unreported tips are also spared a 7.65 percent Social Security tax that's assessed on other wages, she said.
Mike Magnani represents about 550 valets at properties like Caesars Palace, Luxor and Paris Las Vegas as chief executive of Teamsters Local 995. He said the tip compliance rate ranges from $2 to $6.50 an hour tacked onto the wage, depending on the property and shift. He said the rumor that valets earn more than $100,000 is simply not true. But they do make a good living - about $60,000 a year - and have one of the best middle-class jobs, he said.
So it appears the myth of the six-figure valet can be debunked, though it will certainly live on in Las Vegas lore. A Bellagio valet called the rumor "ridiculous." "Everyone inflates everything" in Las Vegas, she said .
Marshall Allen can be reached at 259-2330 or at marshall.allen@lasvegassun.com.
and 150k minimum for almost showing them in a tight cocktail outfit?
