Hi All,
I'm a little bit late to this party, but the QF lounge tipping scam is starting to make its way into some of the blogosphere here.
I'll admit that tipping is a tough subject, even for native born Americans, so you will rarely find much consensus amongst Americans about who to tip and when. (If you want to save yourself the headache, tip everybody you see. Me, I'll take the headache and spend less money.)
The only time tipping in the US is obligatory is when you're dealing with staff who are paid the "tipped minimum wage." This wage is about $2.16 an hour. It's peanuts, and nobody anywhere can survive off of that. While it is not law that you must tip those employees, not tipping them is akin to legalized theft. (Even if it's busy and they're making tips left and right, it's really, really not appropriate to skip out on a tip.)
Everybody else is on a minimum wage of at LEAST $7.25/hr. That number may be higher in certain jurisdictions, as it can be set by any political authority. Somebody posted something earlier indicating that some states have lower minimum wages. This isn't really true, those numbers would reflect laws that were written years ago and never updated. Not updating them has no effective impact, so there's no reason to waste time changing them. So the federal minimum sets the floor, other localities can raise it if they want.
Culturally, the discussion of personal finances is very taboo. I have no idea what my coworkers make, and heck, I have no idea what my own brother makes. So any suggestion of a tip from a service worker is beyond rude.
$7.25 an hour is tough to live on in many large cities, no doubt about that. But the thing is, given our culture, the worker's personal finances are none of my business. The reality is, in the US beyond minimum wage, the "market" sets wages. Staff turnover is certainly a market force. (Not trying to get all political or philosophical here, but since the US has very few labor protections beyond minimum wage and overtime pay requirements, it's worth pointing out that by and large wages are something that employees and employers negotiate.)
So circling back to the topic at hand, the QF lounge tipping issue... it's really hard to bring a "when in Rome, does a the Romans do" to the lounge. The thing is, what is Rome? Is Rome the US city and state where the airport is located? Is "Rome" lounges operated by US airlines? US airlines that operate lounges do not have an "all inclusive" model that the foreign carriers do. You might get some cheap beer, wine, and snack mix included with the lounge entry, but "premium" booze and food is going to cost you. This is just unheard of with the foreign carriers, both European and Asian.
So you'll note that foreign carriers operate lounges in ways that their primary customer base comes to expect, not based on the soil on which they're located. That is, these guys have an all-inclusive model where there is nothing to buy at the lounge. This is a different market force at play.
QF has told their passengers that they're not expected, or even "permitted" to tip. This is certainly a directive that is inline with what the primary customer base would expect. Does it clash with labor's expectation, which is presumably US help, who don't care a bit about Australian customs? If labor was getting paid the tipped minimum wage, the federal government would have something to say about that, so I'd say it's not my problem. If they're only getting paid minimum wage, and the workers feel they could get a better deal elsewhere, they'll quit. If QF can't maintain decent service levels in the lounge, their customer base is going to complain, and perhaps fly a different carrier. So QF does have some incentive to treat their staff well.
The interesting thing with this whole discussion is that as an American, my first concern would actually be with the wait staff at the bar and the dining room. These are the people that we culturally think of tipping first and foremost. The washroom attendants? By and large, that profession doesn't really exist in the US, so they're not people we think of tipping.
TL;DR: No, I wouldn't tip the washroom attendants in the lounge. The charade is pretty slimy and culturally considered very rude. Yes, these folks aren't making much money, but if they have better options, they'll quit, and QF will have to deal with the turnover. It doesn't matter that these guys are contracted out, they still represent QF and QF will have to deal with it if they don't perform well.
