Extract from newspaper about how Australian’s look at tipping in the US.
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4 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Aaah, but most importantly, it often allows the income level of the employee to remain within government guidelines-so the taxpayer gets to pay for the healthcare.
think-freely
Level 4
Apr 2, 2019
0
The business community will never know how many places I avoid due to this excessive and idiotic ‘tipping.’ And if their employees wages don’t cover their time and effort, they need to seek employment elsewhere.
Varn
Level 8
Apr 2, 2019
0
Yeah because well paid jobs are plentiful
Varn:
@Jolanta, @Gooniesnvrdie Most I know brag about tips.. But if someone’s going to work for less than a livable wage, then expect already-paying customers to pay additional wages ..F that ~
This amount of tipping is an archaic concept, and is just subsidising a low wage economy. How come the USA gets away with paying such insultingly low wage rates? .....because customers are in fact making up the difference, by OTT tipping....that’s why. It’s a form of extortion on the customer, not by the employee, but by the employer, who must be laughing all the way to the bank. I sympathise with the waiting staff and the taxi drivers etc., but until the customer decides to act against this unfair system, and only tip when good service is received, not as a given under all circumstance, then employers will continue to underpay and get rich on it. I’m British, and do tip when I have received good service, but only 10%, unless the service is exceptional....we have a minimum wage in place here, which I expect good employers to be complying with. I have not visited the USA for a long number of years and would find that expected level of tipping problematic.
Marionville
Level 10
Apr 2, 2019
2
You get it. As an American I've always found tipping awkward and an embarrassment. Aside from all the completely valid points you made, it is elitist -- it puts me in the position of judging someone's work as a servant to me and gives me the option to punish them for not groveling sufficiently. It is passive-aggressive behavior which leads to passive-aggressive behavior on the part of waitstaff in retaliation for real or perceived slights. Including the practice of spitting in the food of "difficult" customers before bringing it out to them. Yeah, that's a real thing.
I have some sympathy for the Australians. having travelled quite widely in the USA I still find the practice of employers paying staff a pittance and expecting customers to make up the balance by tipping bizarre.
Surely tips should be in addition to a wage not instead of it.
Moravian
Level 8
Apr 2, 2019
1
I always have to remind myself to tip when I'm in the States. It is really weird. For me, it's like saying, I acknowledge your slave labour and I'm trying to make up for it even if your employer doesn't care for you.
Don't get me wrong, I always tip and I feel for the staff. But, it's a weird practice to not pay the staff and hope that others chip in.
@Mofferatu It is also demeaning to the staff. I have American friends who say "but you tip them for good service ". So you have to bribe the waiting staff for not pouring the soup in your lap ? In the UK I usually tip around 10% but a couple of times I had breakfast costing around $10 in a diner in the US and gave a tip of $2, around 20% and if looks could kill !!
@LetzGetReal Maybe 20% is standard but on a $10 meal it is not very much. I got the impression that on both occasions the waitress was expecting $5
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