Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Tipping
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 38625" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Sorry Fran, no intention to compare airport valets to nurses. mother in law is a retired nurse, husband & I both know how hard they work. I'm not sure we HAVE airport valets, we've got something else here. I do agree though, about it being a big help to keep some people sweet.</p><p></p><p>Maybe that's the difference - we have a fairly generous welfare system and our minimum wage is also fairly high - I do know that proportionally it is much higher than in the US. The wages of people at our airports is probably higher than ours! Apart from the few very rich people in our country, many more Aussies as a percentage of total population are round about the same level income-wise, than I think in the US. Example - husband is technically a professional, it takes a lot of experience and qualifications to do his job, but already easy child alone earns more than husband & I do together. easy child 2/difficult child 2 works behind a check-out and earns enough to move away from home, if she worked enough hours. BF2 is in the first year of his first ever job working in a shop and is close to earning as much as husband.</p><p></p><p>As a result, when we are dealing with service personnel we are often dealing with people who could well be earning as much as us or more, doing a demanding, skilled job - would we offend if we offer to tip? That's coming from an Aussie to an Aussie - we'll take anything from a tourist without getting offended! But as a country we're very conscious of NOT caring about status or relative importance - we pride ourselves on equality to such an extreme that we can even have reverse snobbery; one place we lived in the neighbours felt sorry for us because we'd wasted our time going to uni - we should have quit school at 15 and got good, solid jobs on the garbage trucks like him, THEN we could have afforded a house sooner. And it wasn't him trying to put us down to make himself feel better - he really did think this way. And so do many others. (we moved - either that or lose our self-esteem).</p><p>One of Australia's richest men, Lindsay Fox, celebrated a very public and lavish birthday party on the weekend - Hugh Jackman was one guest, for example. He joked that he and wife Deb would be jumping out of this bloke's cake. And this bloke is basically a truckie and proud of it. He built up a business from the ground up. He earns a lot more than we do, but if you rubbed shoulders in the street you wouldn't know it.</p><p></p><p>Not that the way we are down under is any better or not - we're just different and I'm still learning HOW different sometimes. As I learn, it explains so much more. You guys are the BEST teachers!</p><p></p><p>(And Fran, I'd maybe better tip the wheelchair porter I get, or maybe I'll get tipped out onto the tarmac?)</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 38625, member: 1991"] Sorry Fran, no intention to compare airport valets to nurses. mother in law is a retired nurse, husband & I both know how hard they work. I'm not sure we HAVE airport valets, we've got something else here. I do agree though, about it being a big help to keep some people sweet. Maybe that's the difference - we have a fairly generous welfare system and our minimum wage is also fairly high - I do know that proportionally it is much higher than in the US. The wages of people at our airports is probably higher than ours! Apart from the few very rich people in our country, many more Aussies as a percentage of total population are round about the same level income-wise, than I think in the US. Example - husband is technically a professional, it takes a lot of experience and qualifications to do his job, but already easy child alone earns more than husband & I do together. easy child 2/difficult child 2 works behind a check-out and earns enough to move away from home, if she worked enough hours. BF2 is in the first year of his first ever job working in a shop and is close to earning as much as husband. As a result, when we are dealing with service personnel we are often dealing with people who could well be earning as much as us or more, doing a demanding, skilled job - would we offend if we offer to tip? That's coming from an Aussie to an Aussie - we'll take anything from a tourist without getting offended! But as a country we're very conscious of NOT caring about status or relative importance - we pride ourselves on equality to such an extreme that we can even have reverse snobbery; one place we lived in the neighbours felt sorry for us because we'd wasted our time going to uni - we should have quit school at 15 and got good, solid jobs on the garbage trucks like him, THEN we could have afforded a house sooner. And it wasn't him trying to put us down to make himself feel better - he really did think this way. And so do many others. (we moved - either that or lose our self-esteem). One of Australia's richest men, Lindsay Fox, celebrated a very public and lavish birthday party on the weekend - Hugh Jackman was one guest, for example. He joked that he and wife Deb would be jumping out of this bloke's cake. And this bloke is basically a truckie and proud of it. He built up a business from the ground up. He earns a lot more than we do, but if you rubbed shoulders in the street you wouldn't know it. Not that the way we are down under is any better or not - we're just different and I'm still learning HOW different sometimes. As I learn, it explains so much more. You guys are the BEST teachers! (And Fran, I'd maybe better tip the wheelchair porter I get, or maybe I'll get tipped out onto the tarmac?) Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Tipping
Top