[Sca-cooks] food manners/tipping

[Margaret Rendell]

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise passed on the following:
> And never ever say some stupid crap like, .The restaurant should pay the 
> servers a living wage so that I don.t have to tip,. and then use that as 
> an excuse not to leave a tip, because that is a crass bullshit excuse to 
> just be a tightwad. If you go out with me and say such a thing, guess 
> what? I won.t go out with you again. End of story.
>   
mundane inter-kingdom anthropology question: In Australia, the waiters 
have a mandated (not great, but ok) minimum hourly wage, and we tip for 
noticeably good service or food. Tipping as a general rule is taking off 
a bit, but I feel it's mostly a cultural cringe thing ("see, we tip! 
We're sophisticated too!")

Is low wages for waitstaff, augmented (hopefully) up to something 
liveable by tips, standard across the US, or does it vary? Canada? 
European countries?
General interest, plus if ever I go to these places, I want to do the 
right thing...

Margaret/Emma