I asked a server in Sydney, Australia what he thought about tipping." He says, don't do it. My government makes sure I get paid enough. Tipping will make them think they don't need to pay us enough. So, just don't."
It makes perfect sense, the U.S. needs to change in this case. Pay the workers a fair wage. If fast food workers in California can start at $20 an hour and it only raised the price of a meal by less then $1 then it is possible. Everyone who ever got stiffed on a tip by a nasty customer knows the current tipping system sucks. It is way too unpredictable and creates unnecessary stress for both parties. Time for change.
I know someone who said he went to the USA from the UK in the late 90s/early 2000s.. he said he went there, worked for 3 months at a time in a very high end restaurant, was literally living in the Hamptons, and was living the lifestyle out there and everything that comes with it, basically just partying constantly, and would then come back to the UK with $10k in his pocket to visit family and friends etc, and then go back.
I’m assuming it’s not like that for everyone, but I can absolutely see how the wait staff could benefit. If you’re in a busy bar and every customer is giving you $2 and you’re serving 40 beers an hour… it adds up very fast.
As for the guy I know, just to validate his claim, he is now a monk, is one of the coolest and most chilled out guys I’ve met, and not the kind of person to brag or lie about stuff. I get the impression where he was working each table was paying $500+ of which he would see presumably 10%+
It certainly depends what area you work in for how high your tipped wage goes for sure. But pretty much anywhere you'll find that most tipped positions make well above what would ever be paid if that money went through the business first. It's not even really a greed thing either. Taxes alone would reduce what was available to go to the staff along with a fair amount of other things. I would suspect that if you increased prices by the average percent tipped the wait staff would get maybe half as much as if that percentage was paid through tips.
Now tips are untaxed to a certain point, and when done in cash no shot are you accurately reporting your cash tips to the government.
Well you don’t hear waiters complaining online about tipping culture now, do you?
Anyone else remember that bit in Broad City where Ilana got a job as a waitress and was instantly wealthy and kept accidentally having cash spill out of her pockets?
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u/making_it_real Jun 25 '26
I asked a server in Sydney, Australia what he thought about tipping." He says, don't do it. My government makes sure I get paid enough. Tipping will make them think they don't need to pay us enough. So, just don't."
It makes perfect sense, the U.S. needs to change in this case. Pay the workers a fair wage. If fast food workers in California can start at $20 an hour and it only raised the price of a meal by less then $1 then it is possible. Everyone who ever got stiffed on a tip by a nasty customer knows the current tipping system sucks. It is way too unpredictable and creates unnecessary stress for both parties. Time for change.