Have I Got a Tip For You

A curious thing about expat life and international travel is that it gets me thinking about the "why" of cultural phenomena  that I'd never questioned before.


Like today in the shower, my mind wandered to tipping at restaurants. 


In America, we tip. We just do. 
In Australia, we just don't. 

I've written about tipping before, in terms of how it impacts me, as a customer, but even then I didn't think about why it is culturally different.


Now, I do understand why, in the sense that in the U.S., waiters don't make a living base wage and make up the rest in tips. And that in Australia, waiters make a decent salary, and we customers are paying them through the menu prices. 


But, why? We both more or less have origin stories that begin in England, yes? How and when did our way of doing business become so inherently different?


I did some Google research. My question has not been completely resolved, but it is an interesting history, and also amazing what strong feelings the question of tipping culture bring up. I won't get into trying to side with which one is better/worse, but rather just tell you what I learned about the Why (and a little of the When and How).


Most sources seem to agree that a culture of tipping was common in British households as early as the 17th Century. Guests in estate homes would leave a gratuity for the household staff, which was at least partially an acknowledgement of the vast class disparity. Tipping started to become increasingly popular in British pubs, where proprietors would leave out jars that said something like, "To Insure Promptitude." (T.I.P.s, heh? ... Wikipedia says this may or may not be the origin of the word). If you wanted good service, you left a tip.


I could not find anything about the evolution of tipping in Australia, but the short version of tipping in the U.S. goes something like this:


At first, tipping was not the norm in America. It was seen as a symbol of an aristocratic society, and of course, early America wanted nothing to do with that. It wasn't until after the Civil War that:


"wealthy Americans began traveling to Europe in significant numbers, and they brought the tip home with them to demonstrate their worldliness. But the United States, unlike Europe, had no aristocratic tradition, and as tipping spread — like “evil insects and weeds,” The New York Times claimed in 1897 — many thought it was antithetical to American democratic ideals. “Tipping, and the aristocratic idea it exemplifies, is what we left Europe to escape,” William Scott wrote in his 1916 anti-tipping screed, “The Itching Palm.” One periodical of the same era deplored tipping for creating a class of workers who relied on “fawning for favors." (NY Times)


There was plenty of opposition, but nonetheless, the tradition began to seep into the culture more and more. As did the expected size of the tip. In the early 20th Century, tips were about 10% of the bill. Today, of course, closer to 20%.


As tipping culture grew in the U.S., the British were getting fed up with it. "The 1943 Catering Wages Act in Britain established a minimum wage for service employees that helped decrease their reliance on tips." (NY Times, again). I can only assume that Australia, at that time, would have gone along with what England was doing; so this may explain how Australia ended up with no tipping culture. Although, I'm not clear on whether they ever had one like England did, since - like America - it was never a class-based society. 


If any of you smart readers know more about the history of tipping in Australia, I hope you might leave a comment. I'd love to learn more. 


Everyone else ... tip your waiters. 
Or, don't.


If you're interested in the topic, the NY Times article I quoted from is long, but well worth the read.
Other sources, were this one, this one, and of course this one.