Tipping

[deird1]

Read an article on tipping (with, yes, quite a lot of discussion about Aussies) this morning, and got interested...

Poll #4972 tipping

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

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How much should you tip in restaurants?

View Answers

0%
0 (0.0%)

0% ...but then, I'm Australian
4 (14.8%)

5%
0 (0.0%)

10%
5 (18.5%)

20%
15 (55.6%)

25%
0 (0.0%)

30%
0 (0.0%)

50%
0 (0.0%)

ridiculously huge amounts
0 (0.0%)

it really depends on the service
3 (11.1%)

Tipping...

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sucks
5 (19.2%)

is great
5 (19.2%)

is annoying, but can't be helped
12 (46.2%)

I'm Australian, and laugh at people who tip
3 (11.5%)

I'm a waiter, and glare at people who don't tip
2 (7.7%)

why be stingy?
15 (57.7%)

why not just pay the waiters properly?
17 (65.4%)

ticky!
12 (46.2%)

tip!
7 (26.9%)

ticky again!
9 (34.6%)

My general position:
- America, for some insane reason, underpays people and expects them to earn most of their salary through tips. Were I in America, I would (reluctantly) tip everyone. After all, it's not their fault their work conditions stink.
- Luckily, I am in Australia, where tipping is not expected. So I don't tip - unless the place was really brilliant, in which case I might add my spare change to their tip jar...

Comments

[deird1]

You should always be jealous of Australia. After all, we have vegemite, baby echidnas, and meat pie floaters. Plus really nice beaches, Christmas in summer, and, yes, lack of tipping...

[angearia]

Haha, I want to move to Australia. USA is going down the drain. Time to emigrate. Sigh. But which countries will even take an American ex-pat?

[fenchurch]

After all, we have vegemite, baby echidnas, and meat pie floaters.

Oh my gosh... now I rather desperately want a meat pie floater! I haven't had one in ages... there used to be an Australian restaurant in Idaho Falls, ID (of all places!) that I would eat at all the time when I was in town visiting my grandmother.

The owner was an elderly gentleman from Perth who had met a woman in Idaho Falls over the internet and had moved to the US to marry her. The restaurant made fantastic pies (and, subsequently, fantastic pie floaters) but they went out of business a few years ago (I think the owner retired).

More locally, we have the Australian Pie Company down in Burien, but their pies aren't anywhere near as good (still, after this discussion, I may have to look at picking some up anyway).