A meditation on tipping in Australia versus the United States.
And Manhattan is really cool these days. Especially with the Aussie kicking seven kinds of Chinese tripe out of the greenback. But that rest room, it was a marvel. If it was a person I’d say it’d been scrubbed until its bellybutton shined. The mountain of crisp, white, freshly laundered hand towels never got any smaller despite the constant stream of punters using and discarding them. The wash basin, gleaming and shining, fairly groaned under the weight of the vast selection of cleansing gels, moisturizers, and other masculine hygiene products with which I must profess myself completely unfamiliar. Not one stray, errant drop marked the floor of this restroom. Nary a single pubic hair had escaped to run wild on the immaculate tiling. And it was all thanks to the dude from Senegal who was doing it for minimum wage and tips.
It seems that the toilets are not so clean in Oz. And tipping, evidently an American import, hasn’t exactly captured the imagination down under. The comments following the article are especially entertaining.
Cheap Talk 
5 comments
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April 19, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Joshua Gans
Yep. What of it?
April 19, 2011 at 11:02 pm
jeff
just checking, thanks. moving on…
April 19, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Craig Malam
Not true tightwads, since we tip in countries where it’s called for. More like overly imbibed with a sense of the ‘fair go’. So much so that many don’t see through the claim by those in the service sector that compensating people this way is not fair. When really it’s simply most people wanting to avoid having their remuneration in the hands of the people they are supposed to make happy. A continued high minimum wage prevents tipping becoming more widespread, beyond higher-end businesses.
April 20, 2011 at 9:56 am
manchild
and don’t get us started on the way posted prices exclude sales taxes in North America
March 8, 2013 at 4:57 pm
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