Editorial: Take a tip from us, Paula

Deputy prime minister Paula Bennett is urging Kiwis to tip.

There are some great traditions in New Zealand.

One is we don't - as a rule - tip.

It's not part of Kiwi culture and I've always liked that.

Around the world, tipping is usually not about thanking someone for great service - it's about increasing the wages of the lowly paid.

In the United States, tipping is the rule rather than the exception and you get both good and bad service - the addition of a tip doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

It is built into people's wages, and given the low hourly rate many service staff are paid, it has become essential to earning a living. Long ago it might have been a compliment for good service, but no longer.

So deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett's idea of tipping becoming part of Kiwi hospitality is anathema.

As Trip Advisor points out: "New Zealand has been described as having a "true' merit-based tipping culture".

Of course, people in hospitality want tips, and when you get great service you may choose to tip. But it should not be integral to a decent wage, nor should there be any compulsion.

Shaming people into paying extra - for any kind of service, indifferent or otherwise - is not something that should be promoted. And automatically putting a tip on to a bill is akin to theft.

We pay enough for meals out as it is. Any move to increase the price by making tipping the norm sucks.

The deputy prime minister should not be championing this effort to change the way New Zealand works. We like us just the way we are.

As someone once said: Zip it, sweetie.