Tipping etiquette for Delivery Hero orders

• 

  fruit on 09/06/2015 - 21:57

  +4

  This is Australia.

• 

  nubzy on 09/06/2015 - 21:59

  +3

  No. Already paid for delivery in the order and they receive a fair wage.

• 

  Diji1 on 09/06/2015 - 22:03

  +1

  I don't have anything against tipping. If you want to give someone what is a gift (I guess?) as far as their income what's the harm?

  I wouldn't do it personally though but hey…

• 

  PVA on 09/06/2015 - 22:15

  no, not usually but if it's pouring rain I usually do, just small though round up to the nearest $5. for example - say the bill is $22, give them $25 and keep the change.

• 

  spiev on 09/06/2015 - 22:18

  +10

  No, tipping culture sucks and it white-ants the minimum wage. If tipping becomes pervasive enough, it becomes justification for not keeping the minimum wage at a liveable level (it's already borderline), and before you know it, you're living in 'Murica.

  I have tipped ONCE for a delivery in Australia. It was during the Sydney storms in April, my DH order came during the worst of it. It felt like my delivery guy probably earned something extra for literally risking his life to deliver me some shitty Thai food (my street was covered in SES tape the next day - I wouldn't have ordered anything if I'd known it was going to be so bad).

  So yeah tl;dr, unless it's a once-in-a-decade storm slash the apocalypse, don't tip IMO.

  • 

    Diji1 on 09/06/2015 - 22:59

    -2

    Your argument that tipping becomes justification for lowering the minimum wages seems pretty baseless to me.

    And at odds with what's actually happening in some regions of America : large increases in the minimum wage are occurring.

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/05/minimum…

    Can you actually find transcripts of politicians arguing that tipping justifies low minimum wages?

    • 

      SlickMick on 10/06/2015 - 08:19

      +2

      Food workers earn $9ph in US. They are taxed on an estimated tip income. If we start tipping here, same thing will happen.

    • 

      captaingrumpy on 10/06/2015 - 08:55

      +1

      Have you ever been to America ?? They get a wage in Takeaway like $7 an hour and make it up with tips. They , as a society live on tips and its part of the wage makeup. Here , the wages are good and tipping is not needed for they are already receiving a damn good living.

      • 

        Diji1 on 10/06/2015 - 10:55

        -3

        I have not visited America but the point I was trying to make is the minimum wage has actually GONE UP - this s a real life thing not a comment on a forum explaining that it's been low because er … "tipping culture" exists.

        And yet here we are with you guys insisting that no, tipping drives down the minimum wage. And yet you can't point to rates of tipping dropping with this recent (relatively large as well I might add) minimum wage increase.

        Who knows, maybe someone worked out that doing that is good for the economy. What I'd like you to show me is where tipping came into raising the wage since you seem sure it's lowering it.

      • 

        spiev on 12/06/2015 - 00:50

        +3

        @Diji1: No one has said minimum wages, anywhere, have gone down.

        There is a federal minimum wage in the United States of $7.25 per hour. But, if you work in an industry with tips, you can be paid $2.13 an hour. That's the minimum wage for people earning tips.

        You asked if there are transcripts of politicians arguing that tipping justifies a low minimum wage - well there you have actual US labour law, explicitly allowing a ridiculously lower minimum wage if you are receiving tips.

    • 

      geoffellis on 23/06/2015 - 20:36

      Minimum wage in America is not a living wage like it is here in Australia.

      Here in Australia the poverty line is about 400$ a week for a single adult. Or about 20k a year. Less than that and you live in Poverty. if you make 17$ an hour you make 650$ a week at a full time job. So the minimum wage is about 35% above the poverty line.

      In the US the poverty line is 230$ a week for a single adult. Or about 12k a year. Less than that and you live in poverty. If you make the federal minimum wage of 7.25 - In a 38 hour work (for comparison above) week there you earn 275$. This is a little over the poverty line. This is about 20% above the poverty line.

      But tipped professions don't necessarily earn the federally mandated minimum wage. They are actually legislatively permitted to be paid only 2$ with the idea being that the employer makes up the difference if they make less than the 7.25 an hour.

      But that doesn't always happen. So in a 38 hour work week, a tipped employee may only make 76$ - They expect YOU the customer to make up the difference between 76 and 275.

      And it's been legislated to be that way. It started in 1938 with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which allowed tipped professions to earn 50% below the minimum wage. Then in 1996 the Small Business Job Protection Act set the minimum wage for tipped professions at just over 2$ an hour. Why was this so? Well, if you look back, 10% was average. 15% was above. Then 15% became average, and 20% was above. Now 20% is fairly average and 25% is average. Tippers keep paying more and more. So why raise the minimum wage for tipped professions? Since 1996 the federal minimum wage has risen from 3.50 i think to 7.25. Tipped employees haven't received similar increases. But the culture of tipping forces people to tip more, as servers demand more to cover inflation and the cost of living. So the government figures, why raise it, people are doing that for us?

      Basically, theres 2 classes of minimum wage. Minimum wage for unskilled work, and minimum wage for tipped professions. Tipped professions earn significantly lower than the minimum wage for unskilled workers in the hope that customers will make up the difference. It is a horrible system.

• 

  thejew on 09/06/2015 - 22:18

  +1

  Delivery drivers are the ONLY tipping I believe in, Largely to do with the going to a strangers home, at night, n often in the rain

  • 

    Settero on 09/06/2015 - 23:36

    +1

    so.. you tip for them doing their job ?
    do you also tip couriers ? they literally do the same thing..

    i hate american style tipping of tipping people for doing their job, i only tip when the service is exceptional and makes the experience better than what i would have expected/normal.

    • 

      Tal_Shiar on 12/06/2015 - 03:20

      The difference is couriers come less frequently and are often loud and rude, delivery drivers bring you food and are often really nice people…

• 

  Paul Atreides on 09/06/2015 - 22:38

  when it's raining, yes
  when the food gets here a lot faster than the estimate, yes

  only 2 reasons ive tipped atm

• 

  cyssero on 09/06/2015 - 23:01

  +1

  When they deliver on time and it's a place I've ordered from more than once I'll usually leave them with $2 (my order is usually $25 or so).

  I strongly believe the minimum wage needs to cover this, but I know there are illegal employment practices and workers not always getting what they're entitled to. My $2 doesn't help this at all, but it's at least going straight into their pocket.

  I wont tip at a retail outlet especially busy and reputable ones that should be paying at least minimum wage to staffers.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 10/06/2015 - 00:10

  +2

  Most delivery drivers in Melbourne are on $11-12 an hour. Some are paid $2 per delivery, some aren't. They're also expected to do kitchen hand duties when not delivering. I hate tipping, but knowing that these types of workers are exploited I usually hand over a couple of dollars.

  • 

    RockyRaccoon on 10/06/2015 - 08:15

    ?? $2 a delivery and have to do kitchen work? Doesnt make sense

    $2 a delivery wouldnt even pay to run your car

    $16.87 is minimum wage per hour, so where do you get The $11-12

    If your delivery driver is being underpaid as you know. Dont buy from that company. Tipping will just encourage the driver to accept lower wage.

    • 

      captaingrumpy on 12/06/2015 - 01:16

      If you don't buy from that company then business drops and the first to let go is the delivery driver. Crap idea.

      • 

        RockyRaccoon on 12/06/2015 - 07:46

        One point of view, but likewise if you support this company, then others could do the same, and a different result occurs.

        Lucky we are not economists or politicians!

• 

  Almost Banned on 10/06/2015 - 00:29

  +3

  There is no justification for tipping in this country and no cultural reason for it either.
  The last thing we need is to head down that slope.
  When they establish a different minimum wage for tipped workers and non-tipped workers like they do in America then maybe I'll think about it - till then you get paid by your boss for your job, not me.

• 

  juventino on 10/06/2015 - 03:35

  I won't tip. And as an employee I would politely decline the tip if someone offers it. I feel slightly offended someone has to reward me just so I can continue to have the motivation to do things those are part of my job description.

  • 

    damnable on 13/06/2015 - 09:18

    What! A person on ozbargain declining free money??!?

• 

  firedragon on 10/06/2015 - 07:58

  I suppose if the food came much, much quicker than expected. But probably not, this is Australia.

• 

  8anddrank on 10/06/2015 - 10:54

  +2

  If you've ever had a job as a food delivery driver (which I have had), and you have a heart, you'd tip (as I do). I keep it to $2 - $3 - even when I've prepaid. It's a crappy job - trying to find people's houses, often in the dark, in crappy weather. You wouldn't believe how many people don't even bother to put a legible number on their house, and you use your own petrol driving up and down the street trying to find it. If you don't tip every now and then, rest assured your delivery may become the last one on the run…..

• 

  timthetoolman on 10/06/2015 - 15:52

  I've been asked before whilst paying my dinner bill if i'd like to give a tip, i was very taken back and felt weird saying no so just gave $5. But it was just a bit pushy, we dont tip here unless its great service ( me personally) but to ask for one is a bit forward.

  • 

    SlickMick on 11/06/2015 - 08:39

    +2

    wouldn't be going back there

• 

  Daniel Plainview on 11/06/2015 - 11:49

  IMHO there's essentially two strands to what the OP has posed - the first is whether one should ever tip in Australia and I'd think most would say there are rare times it might be considered but given the wage structure here is entirely different to tip dependent parts of the world it's 100% discretionary - rather than being essentially a compulsary part of the bill/service e.g USA.

  The 2nd part is essentially saying as the buyer got such a good buy on the service (e.g big fat DH discount) should/do you feel compelled to tip the delivery person more (essentially lets face it this is being done almost as a compensatory/guilt thing). And I'd say refer to answer #1 - especially as in 99.9% of circumstances the delivery person who you're proposing to pocket your tip for the overall price being so low, ISN'T the owner of the business who may/maynot of fully/partially subsidised your meal/service. So it's a very ineffective way to make up for one's temporary guilt for getting such a good buy.

  All delivery persons will be covered by a Federal Award governing their wage levels & as such should be receiving them - hence as stated by others they're already being by most standards fairly compensated and personally unless their efforts go above and beyond reasonable expectations I'd not see any basis to tip them and getting a good buy/bargain has nothing to do with extra need for tipping. :-)

• 

  Tal_Shiar on 12/06/2015 - 03:15

  I will round up to the nearest note, but that's about it, don't like tipping one bit, and thats assuming I'm happy with the service I've received

• 

  tonka on 12/06/2015 - 16:38

  I used to work many years as a delivery driver.
  In most cases the drivers relied on some income from tips to make it worth while. As tips dried up so did the availability of drivers. It simply was not worthwhile especially with the rising costs of running a vehicle.

  I do know if you are a tipper the drivers will remember. You will often get your food faster and hotter, especially if ordering from somewhere with multiple drivers.