Aussies have taken to social media to lash businesses aggressively pushing tipping amid the cost of living crisis describing the practice as “cancerous” and “predatory”.
In some countries, tipping is considered non-negotiable when eating out, but in Australia the practice has never been mainstream.
Online ordering systems and food delivery apps have changed that. Some ask for a tip while others automatically select one, with customers having to actively opt out of paying extra.
A Reddit post on the topic has garnered hundreds of comments and over 1,300 likes about the practice.
The trend has particularly irked some because of cost of living pressures.
Australian households are under “extreme” cost-of-living pressure with two in five people struggling to pay to have a roof over their head, according to Finder’s cost-of-living pressure gauge.
Currently, annual inflation rate is 5.4 per cent and the official cash rate is 4.35 per cent, the highest its been since 2011.
One person on the Reddit thread wrote they considered themselves an “fairly a...
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