FIFA World Cup highlights tipping culture divide between visitors and Canadian hospitality workers
Visitors from countries like Australia where tipping is not obligatory are discovering that Canada's service-industry wages rely heavily on gratuities.
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The FIFA World Cup has put a spotlight on Canada's tipping culture, as thousands of international visitors accustomed to different hospitality wage models have questioned the practice.
Kurt Johnson, an Australian visitor, remembered leaving a bar in downtown Vancouver feeling like he'd been overcharged. A card machine prompted him to leave a tip even though gratuity was already included in the bill. "I double tipped," he said. "I kind of laughed it off, but then I thought about it, and was like, 'Hang on, they've just stolen from me.'" Johnson spoke fondly of his time walking Granville Street and heading to fan zones, but said the tipping experience stood out as unusual.
Johnson is one of thousands of people who arrived in Vancouver for the World Cup — not all from countries where tipping is standard practice. The influx has highlighted differences between hospitality wages in Canada and places like Australia, where tipping is not obligatory and staff are paid a higher minimum wage.
Fiona Macdonald, policy director with the Centre for Future Work, said a low minimum wage combined with reliance on variable tips fails to provide fair pay. "If there is a low minimum wage and workers are reliant on variable tips to earn a living this is not providing fair pay," she said. "Human labour cannot be treated as a commodity that changes price at the whim of the market."
Milena Stanoeva with Restaurants Canada acknowledged that adopting an Australian-style model could mean higher menu prices. "There's only so much that a restaurant owner on like three to five per cent profit margins can absorb without having to raise their own prices," she said. "So it's got positives and negatives."
Vancouver city Councillor Lucy Maloney, who previously lived in Australia where she worked in hospitality, said the mixed messaging can confuse visitors. "There are mixed messages because of Canada's proximity to the United States," she said. "It can be pretty confusing and overwhelming for people that don't come from a tipping culture." In Australia, menu prices include tax and service charges, which Maloney said makes budgeting easier for diners.
