The tipping point. What would you do? Photo: Blake Wisz.
To tip or not to tip?
There was a time when I would emphatically say no. But there I was the other night tapping the tipping tab when paying the restaurant bill after a great meal made all the more enjoyable by the kind of service that is very hard to come by in Canberra.
This was a rare occasion and the tipping culture of the US, where staff on meagre wages make ends meet by extracting extras from customers, appreciative or not, should not be welcome in Australia.
That is just an invitation to undermine wages and conditions in a sector that suffers serious skills shortages and is susceptible to exploitation.
Australian workers should not be forced to forage for tips so they can pay their bills. Any extras should be a bit of cream.
Call me cheap, but why tip someone for simply doing their job, for which they are already being paid?
Dining out is expensive these days, for most reserved for special occasions and for some simply off the menu. Why make the hole in your pocket any bigger?
Yet over the years tipping has seeped into Australian hospitality, reaching the point where options – percentages of the bill – flash up before you wave the card at the eftpos machine.
It can be presumptive, annoying and, for some, may even sour what had been until then a good night out.
It’s not mandatory of course and it only takes a tap to decline but at the end of the night after a few loosening glasses of wine most of us are feeling generous, sometimes to a fault.
How many look at their bill the next day and rue the size of the tip they left?
The rule should be that service that goes beyond the norm and that makes a discernible difference to the experience may deserve to be rewarded and directed to the staff member intended. Certainly not going into communal pool to be divided among everyone, defeating the very purpose of the exercise.
There is no standard for how much one should tip but it depends on your means, the level of service and that intangible generosity factor.
The other point is that directing a tip towards the particular staff member lets the establishment know the value of that employee, provides important feedback on their training methods if they have them and that it is getting the recipe right for a successful business.
Someone who is attentive, connects with people and makes them feel at home and can manage the flow of courses and drinks successfully can be a priceless asset.
But there should be no place for the kind of built-in expectations of American culture.
Tipping should remain the customer’s prerogative.
When will I tip again? Who knows? But make my night one to remember and anything’s possible.
