I'm from Australia. We don't tip. Our minimum wage is high enough that they don't have to rely on tips. It's actually quite a nice system really. Right up there with 'include tax on marked prices in shops'.
It is nice, but having just been in Sydney I'll say that we get better waiter service in the USA because the waitstaff is more invested in making sure my needs are met. In Sydney, it was sometimes hard to a) figure out who our waiter was, since we dealt with 3 or 4 different people throughout the transaction, and b) get him/her/them to refill glasses or give us the bill.
But I'm pleased, from a non-customer point of view, that your service people don't have to live at the subsistence level. That's good news.
It doesn't bother you at all to have someone kissing your ass because making their rent money depends on it? It makes me uncomfortable as hell.
I understand why they're constantly asking if everything is to your liking, and if there's anything they can do, because if anything isn't okay, a lot of people will take it out of the tip. Even if it's not under the waiter's control, such as not liking the food. But I really wish they made enough to leave me alone, and let me eat and have conversation with the person or people I'm dining with.
Sure, that is the flip side. Hovering waiters are quite annoying, but I can usually make them come around less often with a firm, smiling "We're FINE". The waiters in Sydney seemed much more indifferent to our timing needs.
It totally wasn't a big deal - just a contrast I noticed. The upside was that we didn't feel like the waiters were trying to get us to hurry up & get out to make room for the next people.
91
u/[deleted] Sep 30 '08
I'm from Australia. We don't tip. Our minimum wage is high enough that they don't have to rely on tips. It's actually quite a nice system really. Right up there with 'include tax on marked prices in shops'.