Australia is notorious for not tipping - at least, nothing like you guys in the US. It is something totally alien to our culture. And yet we used to treat the garbos at Christmas time to a bottle of beer, left on the bin lid. They were about the only people we DID give something to. My mother might make preserves for the milko, the postie and that's about it.
Back in those days the garbos did it all manually. One drove the truck and the other two ran behind weaving left and right to grab bins from both sides of the street, heave them into the truck and put the bins back. Considering Christmas is our summer, and they were about to get overloaded bins, in summer heat (hence - prawn shells going 'off' while they waited for collection) we needed to keep the garbos sweet. By being generous and giving them a bottle of beer each with our bins, it guaranteed that for the next few weeks at least, we got gilt-edged service. They almost scrubbed the bins clean for us; the bins got set back down upright on the kerb with the lids on. No extra dents. We were a big family who often had extra rubbish to go out, so it was in our interests to bribe them a bit. The bin collections might sometimes involve some extra bags of rubbish, or something smellier than usual.
We would occasionally hear tales of families who really took advantage of their garbos, asking them to go above & beyond the call of duty, and then leave out nothing for Christmas. Their bins were always the really dented ones, or the ones 'forgotten' or knocked over and spilt. But if OUR bin got knocked over in the weeks after Christmas, these guys would pick it all up for us.
These days it's all mechanical so we couldn't tip even if we wanted to. There's no need for it anyway, they DO get paid well.
We understand that tipping was a way to subsidise what were fairly low wages and poor conditions in the US, but in Australia we've never had comparatively low wages like that - if you had a job you were generally paid enough in comparison to most other workers. We were a nation of "battlers", meaning EVERYONE (except the really rich few) were on the same level playing field. Hence - no tipping, because it would be coming from the poor, to the poor.
With more tourism and overseas visitors, things have changed. The services which deal most with tourists are the ones where tipping has come in. Hotel staff, restaurant staff, and so on. It's still unusual anywhere else. The reputation of US tourists especially, for being very popular as they are heavy tippers, has often meant that the US tourist gets a lot of fuss made of them in Australia! So if you want to save money when you visit Australia, remember - you don't have to tip everyone! And you will STILL be considered generous! Aussies LOVE the Yanks!
With the automation of many services we no longer even give a gift at Christmas time (which was always preferred to money, because a money gift implies class distinction, and our garbos are very proud. But nobody would refuse a free beer in the festive season!).
Some cafés now also have a tip jar, but this is generally only for service above & beyond the usual involving a meal, not a mere cup of coffee. We don't have tip jars in fast food restaurants, in hairdressers (not the ones I go to, anyway) or sandwich shops.
The maximum tip, and then only for exceptional service, is 10%. We tip in TOP restaurants if we've had good service; we will tip the minimum to hotel staff who carry in our bags (because they don't have to live on tips, they're on salary, but thanks to you lot, it's now expected!) but we don't tip anyone else. Not even taxis. No tipping of airport staff is needed - they get paid for it. Any freeloaders trying to help out in exchange for a tip - they get moved on, fast.
We now have GST (Goods and Services Tax) in Australia. Since then tipping has gone down further - the GST (which is 10%) means that now it's the Federal Government that gets the tips! The GST was supposed to replace a lot of other taxes - of course it hasn't.
As for tipping buskers - our TV networks have done an experiment a few times by getting some of our most skilled and famous performers, disguising them and putting them on the street busking. After several hours' fabulous guitar playing, Tommy Emmanuel made about $10. Our minimum wage is about twice that, for one hour. Our 'dole' or social security pays more than what he earned.
Marg
