The staff all get paid an award wage that is set by the government, and it is plenty, around $24/hr or more depending on age. This makes our food somewhat expensive: at least $20 for a sit-in meal, around $4.50 for a coffee.
But what you see on the menu is what you pay and includes tax: tipping is not in our culture, and I have never seen drip charging here except on public holidays (“public holiday surcharge”).
Our consumer rights laws probably protect our right to walk away and not pay undisclosed drip charges, although it has never happened to me.
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Admittedly, the award wage makes it difficult for newly established bootstrapped businesses to hire their first staff. For example, we were looking at hiring a graduate engineer, but the award wage was around $40/hr after benefits (superannuation etc), and then there is mandatory Work Cover insurance on top of that. Legally we can’t hire anyone below this amount because Fair Work would have a field day suing us, so we put it off until we can afford to pay, but without financing the leap we are maybe stuck in a catch 22.
Not just that, it's a legal requirement that the price advertised is the price you pay. The ACCC will enforce this.
It's why, for example, the supermarket ogliopoly have a "if it's mispriced it's free" policy, they got fined for inaccurate pricing and tried to turn it into a PR win.
Airlines and ticketmaster are currently fighting to change it but now we have a less right-wing federal government again hopefully the ACCC will be allowed to do their job.
I didn't know about the "if it's mischarged it's free" policy. My local supermarket (not Coles or Woolies) always rings things in at the till wrong and I feel like I'm watching them like a hawk.
It's called the Supermarket Scanning Code of Conduct. If it scans wrong, you get the first one free, and the rest at the proper price. It's designed to keep the ACCC off their back.
I used to do it all the time - it's great when they stuff up prices on expensive items like Razors. One time I went back every day and got a free pack and ended up with several years worth of (free) expensive razors in surplus!
Usually the manager needs to come because the basic checkout person doesn't know about it.
You mention public holiday surcharges, some restaurants are starting to charge a surcharge every day, and as long as it's mentioned somewhere it appears to be legal. Check the bottom of this menu (pdf warning: https://rockpool-websites.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/th...). 5% "service fee" Monday to Saturday in minuscule writing.
> at least $20 for a sit-in meal, around $4.50 for a coffee.
That's actually currently pretty much true of the USA too, especially after recent inflation. Unless exchange rates make the dollar-for-dollar comparison inapplicalble.
But either way, we're paying $20 for a sit-in meal too, but the servers are only being paid literally $3-$6 base rate plus tips, instead of your $24/hour. (Of course, depending on the restaurant, they may make $24 or more after tips... but it looks like median after tips is more like $16/hour, meaning half make more half make less...)
Its analogous to that in a lot of the US but the social pressure remains and is somehow getting worse.
Where I live, waiters used to be exempted from the minimum wage laws, meaning tips were effectively their entire wage. Recently, my state removed the tipped employee exemption (meaning waiters earn minimum wage plus any tips) and nearly doubled the minimum wage.
But, did the expectation to tip go down? Nope, its been shooting up from 15% to 20+% instead. I've been dramatically cutting back on how much I tip to <10%, which makes me rude and a jerk.
Also in Australia I believe it is illegal to do drip pricing. For example Airlines need to advertise the entire price up-front. It includes all of the hidden fees. The only "extra" at the end is 1% or so if you pay via Credit-Card, however there are free Direct-Transfer options (e.g. POLI), so I think that is fair.
The staff all get paid an award wage that is set by the government, and it is plenty, around $24/hr or more depending on age. This makes our food somewhat expensive: at least $20 for a sit-in meal, around $4.50 for a coffee.
But what you see on the menu is what you pay and includes tax: tipping is not in our culture, and I have never seen drip charging here except on public holidays (“public holiday surcharge”).
Our consumer rights laws probably protect our right to walk away and not pay undisclosed drip charges, although it has never happened to me.
—
Admittedly, the award wage makes it difficult for newly established bootstrapped businesses to hire their first staff. For example, we were looking at hiring a graduate engineer, but the award wage was around $40/hr after benefits (superannuation etc), and then there is mandatory Work Cover insurance on top of that. Legally we can’t hire anyone below this amount because Fair Work would have a field day suing us, so we put it off until we can afford to pay, but without financing the leap we are maybe stuck in a catch 22.