It's not just Australia that pays their servers regular wages - Germany is the same and I've actually heard that Connecticut pays at least minimum wage.

Here's the thing with serving here in the U.S. - by law, if what a server makes in tips + the avg $2.13/hrly wage adds up to less than national minimum wage, the company is required to make up the difference so that you make your $7.25/$7.50 whatever it is now.

With that being said, in higher end restaurants (and many mid-level places - especially corporate run "chains" like Red Lobster, Logan's Roadhouse, Outback Steakhouse, etc), servers are required to tip out a percentage of their -sales- to: Bussers/Hostesses & Bartenders. When I first started at Red Lobster, that wasn't a requirement. They changed it about 8 months after I started working there: 1.75% of our sales went to Bussers & Bartenders. During the weekday, it wasn't really a problem 'cuz we didn't have bussers and I think on especially slow lunches, we didn't have a bartender either.

At Logan's, we -had- to tip bussers & bartenders, but how much we gave was optional. We didn't have bussers during the days except Sunday lunch. After I left there, corporate swooped in and started making servers tip out about 3%.

At LongHorn, our Hostesses doubled as our Bussers, so we -always- had them and always there's a bartender on duty, again 3%. Which I didn't mind paying out for like 1 of the bartenders and 1 of the "SAs" (Server Asst.), but there were several extremely lazy SAs and a couple of bartenders that were slow and just plain sucked.

It doesn't matter how much we actually -make- in tips. If we sell $2000 in food and only make like $50 (yeah, it's an exaggeration, but bear with me. Actually. In some cases, it's not. I've seen shitty servers sell a lot and make zilch), we still have to tip out that 3% - which would be $66 which would mean that server would have to cough up the rest or talk to a manager. I've never had that problem, but I'm sure someone has.

Anyway, typical tip percentage nowadays is 15 - 20% of your total bill - yes that includes that $60 bottle of wine you bought for you and your dinner guest. I've been stiffed so many times 'cuz people think "Oh, they just walked a bottle over. Nothing special." Wrong. I had to take precious time out of my busy night to wrestle with the ghetto ass wine keys to get the seal off the bottle then un-cork the stupid thing and pour your first glasses - all right in front of you while I've got 2 or 3 other tables flagging me down 'cuz they need their barely drunk waters topped off.

But I digress. If a server is shitty, it's much nicer to leave 0 tip than an "Eff You" $2 on $120. And my new rule of thumb is to never complain to a manager unless service is -completely- shit. You never know if you just cost that person their job or what they have riding on it. I've had it happen 2x to me and it was over things that were out of my control / certain managers hated my guts for no reason other than they were stupid.

But I digress. I went way off topic.

At LongHorn Steakhouse, for lunch for 2 - you're not leaving for less than $17 - $20 (depending on whether you get just plain tap water or a soda).
Dinner, you're not gonna pay less than $30 - $35 - both not including tip.

Tennessee in general has one of the highest sales taxes in the nation - it's technically 7%, but local governments can add on to that. Nashville and Clarksville tack on an extra 2.25% - which makes it 9.25% total in sales tax that we pay. Iiiiit's pretty gruesome.

So that gallon of milk that now runs around $3.50 (here, milk has become more expensive than gasoline) - after taxes it's $3.82. Not a huge deal, but when you've gotta feed a family, it adds up quickly.

But I can't imagine living somewhere -more- expensive than someplace like Australia. Mexico is cheap, in spite of its issues with crime and drugs and stuff. And I kind of hunted around and did an estimate for a wedding package for 200 people on the island of Boracay in the Philippines and it can be done for a mere $10,000 - $12,000 - that's not including tuxes & dresses for the bridal party or transportation & accomodations for those flying in from the U.S. Yes, Jay's parents know that many people. *eye roll*