Beginning this week, the initiative, called “The Envelope Please”, will begin providing envelopes in Marriott hotel rooms to encourage guests to tip the workers. To ensure that the tip goes to the person cleaning the room for the night, The American Hotel and Lodging Association suggests tipping between $1 and $5 to housekeepers. After the economic downturn, industries like hospitality and tourism, with low wage positions have dominated. Even so, less than 10 percent of Marriott’s workforce belongs to labor unions.

Under the union’s current contract, which runs through September 2017, housekeepers, who currently make $18.30 per hour, receive raises every six months, Boardman said. By the contract’s end, housekeepers will be making $20.35 per hour at local hotels including the Marriott Marquis, Mayflower Renaissance and Washington Marriott Wardman Park. “We think it’s a great idea,” Boardman said about Marriott’s tipping initiative. “It highlights the hard work that housekeepers do every day. We think it’s a nice acknowledgment.”