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Isabella: I came across a post in a bartenders\u2019 Facebook group from someone asking if their experience of having tips withheld was normal. The comments shocked me! There were more than 30 responses, with the majority of them calling out venues where they\u2019d also been denied their tips. It made me think, if this practice was so common, why hadn\u2019t anything been done about it?<\/p>\n
Alyx: When you did some more digging, what did you find out?
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Isabella: I reached out to Fair Work to ask what legislation there was around paying out tips to staff. They told me there is none. So the original poster hadn\u2019t experienced wage theft because the employers weren\u2019t actually breaking any rules.
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It\u2019s not just management who can dip their hand in the tip jar. Cashless payment systems take a percentage from every transaction made too.
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It\u2019s pretty cheeky that the systems that allow a business to ask for tips \u2013 which changes customers\u2019 decision-making behaviour \u2013 also get a cut.<\/p>\n
Alyx: Now we\u2019re being encouraged to tip seemingly everywhere. How do people feel about it?
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Isabella: Patrons seem to hate it. To get a feel for the general consensus I looked on Reddit. It was one of the few subjects where more people were agreeing, rather than arguing in the comments. One of the biggest reasons for this is that Australians think tipping is a US import and not many people want to be associated with those practices. For people in jobs where tipping has become more common, it\u2019s a bit more complicated. While they say it is nice when they do receive tips, the logistics around paying it out and uncertainty about who will actually receive it make tipping difficult to fully get behind. Certainly, tipping isn\u2019t applicable to every situation where you\u2019re prompted to do it \u2013 like getting a beer, or after a $600 hair appointment.<\/p>\n
Alyx: Did working on this story change your own attitude to tipping?
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Isabella: I\u2019ll be honest, Alyx, I rarely tip. One, because I don\u2019t really go out and two, if it does come up it\u2019s never appropriate to do so \u2013 am I really going to pay an extra 5% on a meal I ordered myself via a QR code? So my attitude didn\u2019t change too much. In some ways I feel more validated in my behaviour, considering tips don\u2019t always make their way back to staff. The main thing that has changed though is that if I want to tip, I would probably tip cash.<\/p>\n
Your week ahead Photograph: Isha Shah\/PA<\/p>\n
What to watch | Does Australia need another small-town crime drama? Probably not. But if we must have one, at least it\u2019s the \u201crock-solid, socially conscientious\u201d Dustfall<\/a>, starring Anna Torv. Out Sundays on ABC and available to stream on iview.<\/p>\n What to read | The internet\u2019s poet laureate, Patricia Lockwood, is back after a decade spent mostly writing prose. Agate Head\/Stone Soup<\/a> is spikier than some of her previous works but it\u2019s still funny, devastating and relentlessly weird.<\/p>\n What to play | Sophia Stel\u2019s hazy electro-pop comfortably traverses both clubs and mornings after. Her new record\u2019s title, The Greatest Album of All Time<\/a>, might be tongue in cheek but it\u2019s certainly a worthy ambition for a rising star. Speaking of greatest albums, Fontaines DC\u2019s latest, Dopamine Chamber, earned a five-star rave from our critic Laura Snapes<\/a>. \u201cIn the midst of headlines about AI destroying humanity, the idea of listening to music submerged in precisely this shade of doom might sound like, well, hell,\u201d she writes, but: \u201cIf anyone can thread that poisoned needle, it\u2019s Fontaines DC.\u201d<\/p>\n What to cook | Cabbage is still having a moment at fancy restaurants abroad, and locally its affordable and abundant. Alice Zaslavsky\u2019s clever one-pot unrolled cabbage \u201crolls\u201d<\/a> are more quick and easy than hard and cheffy; with impressive end results.<\/p>\n What to book | Paddington the Musical is coming to Sydney next year and the ticket waitlist just opened<\/a>. When I saw it in London, I cried in the queue into the theatre because they had countdown clocks, like on a train platform, which made me think about that little bear on his own at the station. Then I got into the theatre and continued to cry until intermission. During the second act, would you believe, I cried the whole way through? Then at the end, I cried. Steph Harmon<\/p>\n Wishlist Photograph: Wah Wah Australia<\/p>\n The jumper brand Wah Wah\u2019s collaborations with Kaylene Whiskey have been keeping people with directional haircuts warm for several winters. Early next year they\u2019re releasing a summer drop made of cotton<\/a>. Preorder it now, wear it to an art opening later.<\/p>\n Open tabs<\/p>\n The closest I will get to working in Wall Street is being on Wall Street, so I appreciated Good Work\u2019s investigation into the secret network that powers the finance world: Bloomberg terminals<\/a>. Beyond explaining what they do, the video reveals how these highly specialised tools are also an unlikely third space for middle-aged men. Are they the solution to the male loneliness epidemic? Isabella<\/p>\n
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