Tipping in Australia
To commemorate my trip to Australia (yes that is where I have been) I am going to do a series of cartoons that give you and idea of what it is like to experience the great Down Under. The Series is “Ken Groo with the Low Down on the Down Under”
Obviously the first in the series has to do with tipping and what is customary in Australia. You read the guides and ask people that have been there and you find out that tipping is NOT customary in Australia like it is elsewhere in the world. That is because they charge more and therefore pay a higher salary to waiters, clerks, etc. Well that is what they tell you.
What actually happens is that you are bombarded by Tip Jars everywhere. As an American we are accustomed to tipping for any service such as throwing in your change to the coffee shop clerk or putting in a percentage of the check for a meal as a tip. So it becomes confusing Down Under. Am I looked at as a cheapskate if I don’t throw in a tip? Or am I looked at as a sucker if I do because I don’t know any better. Luckily for me I don’t have a conscience so I went with the guides and screwed everyone out of extra money.
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I thought it was the end of the world already as my site crashed for about 6 hours. Something over my head with a php something so I updated it to the most recent version and then I could see the site but not get to the admin page. So I dropped it back to 5.2 and finally got back online. So sorry if anyone had trouble getting in. All that to say that just in case the world really comes to an end before my update on Sunday, remember when you see all the memes/cartoons about the end of the world, back in 2009, I was the first.
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So… did you try watching a toilet flush? Did it spin the other way ’round?
For the most part they all shot out like a geyser
Oh Bearman, those are drinking fountains!!!! Sheez
That must have been embarrassing.
No wonder I got stares.
I would have a difficult time with the no tipping thing. My credit card signing hand does the math in its head.
Yes I started calling it the American Tax
Hope you had fun and good weather, also wanted to know about the toilet spin thing. I have never been out of the northern Hemisphere to find out.
Did they throw another shrimp on the barby for yay?
G’d Day Mate
J-Dotson
Honestly I didn’t pay too much attention to the spin.
Had shrimp but no barby.
Only rained one day, so I’ll take it.
Like the word play on Ken Groo. Nice Roo drawing too. I see the tip jars in coffee shops, restaurants etc at times but I never put in tips. I think tipping is more for wealthy people to take care of so us lower income earners can keep our money. You got your End of the World comic posted early. I’m posting mine on the 21st. Just my luck & the Mayans will be right & my comic will have been wasted
Well you are much more prolific in producing comics. My 2x a week, I might have missed it.
Yeah, the tip jars are for when you actually feel the food or the service was particularly good or if you’re in a generous mood or if you’re from another country and not tipping makes you feel guilty. Simple.
So it is to take advantage of American guilt haha
I need to install some tip jars.
I got plenty of “tips” for you
I mean money tips!
Many restaurants in the UK incorporate a ‘tip’ as part of the bill. If you study the MENU card you’ll often see a note to say ‘Service Charge Included”. In which case, you are not expected to leave a tip since it is already included in the price of the meal
I had mixed feelings about ‘tipping’ when I lived in Canada. I happily tip for good service but part of me felt by tipping I was enabling the restaurant owners to get away with paying crap wages to their staff
I am a service level tipper. Where I find it hard to swallow is that I can have better service at a place where the bill is $20 sometimes than I do at one that is $100. But because of food prices somehow the waiter at the more expensive place makes out.
I didn’t know that about tipping is Australia. I do now. It means I better tip. We do anyway when the service is good.
I’m sure we’ll have lots more posts about your trip. A couple of friends are leaving for Australia shortly. Should be fun to compare your notes with theirs.
Have a terrific day.
Let me know if they have any questions. Yes so far the general consensus is not to give into the American Guilt and pay unless you really really really feel the service was exceptional.
No tipping huh?
I think it was sorta the same thing for me, when stationed in Germany.
But you don’t know? haha
I resent that some people feel like tips are required. I should no more be required to subsidize the waiter or waitress salary than I should to subsidize the clerk at the convenience store. I do however have sympathy for servers because it is hard work and not at all lucrative so I am usually a generous tipper…it is because I want to though. Thinking of it as an obligation causes me resentment though. We often eat at places with a buffet where we serve ourselves. If the waitress is nice and checks to see if we need refills we tip even though we mostly serve our self. If on the other hand they never acknowlege we are there we don’t leave one.
I just have a problem of turning anything into an entitlement that had it’s origins from generosity.
TIPS To Insure Prompt Service. I judge each server independently. If I can tell the issue is with the kitchen and not the server I don’t take it out on their tip. If they are just a bad server, I do. But I am typically pretty generous with tipping.
I remember one time we were at a restaurant and literally the waiter took our order and brought us our check and was rude in the process. The busboy refilled out glasses, brought our food out etc. I left the waiter a 10 cent tip and then walked up to the bus boy in front of the waiter, handed him $10 and said “Thank You”
I wonder if he learned anything from that or if he just gave the bus boy a hard time.
BTW I’m an old man and I have seen so many of thes last day predicitons that I don’t pay much attention to them. I know that any day could be the last day for any one of us.
Indeed…live it full my friend
That Ken Roo design is really nice. Not as nice as it could of been if he was a wombat, but still pretty good.
I tried to get wombats on camera but they wouldn’t talk
We’re a closed-mouth union.
Someone didn’t tell you that
Someone has to be our spokesman.
I vote for Fraz
I leave myself a big tip for every meal I make. I’m making a lot of money off myself.
Can I have a loan?
Absolutely. It’s 10% per week.
Did you get down to Tassie to see Tony? What part of Oz have U hit? Isn’t it an amazing place!!!
Melbourne, Port Douglas, Brisbane, and Sydney. Loved it!
No, he snobbed us.
Perhaps it was the big signs at the border saying “Foreigners Keep Out!!!”
But I drank your beer.
The problem is they tip in Kangaroo pellets.
I tip toed my way through some
Looks like that trip Down Under charged you up, Bearman! Great stuff!
Definitely the break I needed. Thanks Mark
Did you post pictures anywhere? I so want to go there. I will have to settle for Italy in March…
Italy is sooooooooo bad. I feel sorry for you. NOT!
Sheez, locals don’t tip. Staff get paid good wages and they get double pay on weekends and public holidays. You only tip if service is really good or you want to get rid of loose change.
Double pay on weekends? What if you only work weekends?
bonus
Did you enjoy our flies?
I was waiting for them but honestly there was only one part of Sydney for an hour that I had any bug issues the entire time.
Damn it Bearman, you obviously didn’t stink enough
Obviously you do???
I always have a tendency of ignoring any tip jars I come across, but when I’m in a foreign country, I’ve learned that you’re gonna be tipping for everything from gum to urinal use.
Even though the prices of most products are already exorbitantly expensive, the natives still expect a lil’ gratuity. It’s the price of being a tourist, I suppose. I don’t knock it.
I’m glad you had a good time during your journey. Can’t wait to see the scores of photographs.
Well then you need to go to Australia. No Tipping required!!
Is Ken Groo’s middle name Tyler?!
I don’t get it…I’m slow
I wanna see this one too.
I don’t get it either…
Be prepared!
Always
This is an awesome cartoon Bearman
and while I am here I thought that
I would wish you a wicked Christmas
and a Happy New Year in 2013
HAPPY CHRISTMAS BEARMAN
B
T
W
Did you bump into our
Loon on any of your travels
No, he was invited to dinner but he declined the 5 hour flight to see Susi Spice and me
Thanks Andro…Happy New Year and Merry Merry.
No LOON I traveled 25 hours and you couldn’t see fit to fly a mere 5 hours.
5 hours is a long long way for locals. 25 hours is nuthin’ for tourists
Tell me that 1 week later when I still haven’t recovered from jetlag
Likety Like Like Like! One more northern hemisphere doomsday and I’ll have to move down under!
Yes but it will happen there first
Dammed GMT!
Awww Ken Groo’s super cute.
He says so are you
where did you go when you were in my fair country? Did you come to Melbourne at all?
I must say the only time I tip is when I’m out for a nice meal and the service was good or when on holiday in another country.
In the US if you recieved poor service or crap food would you still be expected to tip?
I was there. Went to the Old Gaol and loved it. Now I need to watch a Ned Kelly movie.
I am just calling by to wish you a wicked weekend of naughtiness and wanton debauchery… Noooooooo I mean a happy weekend, wicked is good too but it depends on how daring you are
Have a ghoulishly excellent Christmas with lashings of everything that you enjoy the most 
lol
Androgoth
Thanks Andro….do all the above but be safe!!