Tipping culture, for the most part, is something that Australia has successfully avoided doing. Tipping your Uber/Uber Eats driver appears to be one of the few exceptions to this rule. But tipping wait staff at your local restaurant is one we don’t follow that the yanks across the pond do. But is this looking to slowly be changing?
Tipping has been a discussion brought up and shot down many times over the years and it appears to have jumped back on the table as some restaurants appear to be adding service fees to your bills without verbally telling you. This debate has sparked online again recently after locals visited an Italian restaurant at Circular Quay in Sydney and when the bill arrived they found a 7% service charge in much smaller writing than the rest of the outlined charges.
Picture: Receipt from an Italian Restaurant at Circular Quay in Sydney – Reddit
The restaurant has spoken out and said that both their website and their in-house menus explicitly state there is an optional surcharge that would only be removed upon request. People have largely responded negatively to this, with some saying Australia doesn’t need tipping, others saying putting the pressure on customers to tell their staff they won’t get extra money is inappropriate, and some even questioning if the staff member that served them would even see the tip.
This isn’t the first instance of restaurants quietly adding a service fee either. In Australia it is perfectly legal for hospitality businesses to add a service fee without verbally informing you, as long as you are presented with the service fee in some manner, like the receipt above and this is shown to you before you pay. Will this continue to gain traction in Australia and could we see an increase of restaurants expecting you to tip?
What do you think? Would you like to see tipping culture grow in Australia or do we need to get a jump on this and end it now before it becomes standard
