[Soundgod]

Originally Posted by Dopey

True it isn't mandatory, but please...we tip waiter, we tip cab drivers, we don't automatically tip the people who clean our bathrooms?

There is a slight difference. Taxi drivers and waiters most often aren't even paid minimum wage and many of the taxi drivers in WDW own their own taxis and have contracted with a larger company to feed them fares because they have to kick back fees to the dispatching company and out of money left, they have to pay for gas, insurance, registration, fees, and repairs to their cabs. This means that they aren't even keeping all of the money their taxis bring in on any day. Waiters by some sort of twisted tradition make most of their wages from tips.
The housekeeping staff at WDW is paid better, from my understanding above minimum wage, than the waiters and there is actually a policy to discourage tipping housekeepers and concierge staff.
But has become customary to tip housekeeping for doing a decent job of cleaning your room (and not stealing anything). This goes for land locked hotels. On cruise ships, we're back to the cabin stewards not being paid enough and NEEDING those tips to make up for earnings shortfalls.