Selects: How Tipping Works

Tipping is commonly expected in some places, such as U.S. restaurants. Yet this practice varies across cultures. Join trivia gurus (and former waiters) Josh and Chuck in this classic episode as they take a closer look at the history, practice and controversy surrounding tipping.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody. Chuck here, We're going back in time to
March on this Saturday Selects episode to tell you how
to tip people. Oh boy, if you don't know how
to tip, then this episode we'll kind of explain that
to you. It is from twelve. So I hope you
did the right thing. I know we talked about tipping well,
but I am tipping even more of these days, especially

(00:20):
in our recent situation during the lockdown, when so many
people in the industries that rely on tips have not
been able to work for tips and they have been
hit hard. So I gotta tell you I'm throwing down
as much money their way as I can afford, as
should you. So do the right thing. Everyone, tip big
if you can, and listen to this episode on how
tipping works. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production

(00:47):
of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and uh,
this is Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Have you
ever waited tables? I did? Know, it's awful. How long
did you do it? I did it often on for

(01:10):
many years. Didn't but man, I was bad. Yeah, I
waited tables for many years as well, and many, uh
several different states and different many different kinds of restaurants,
So I have a pretty wide range of experience with
being tipped. How are you doing great? How are you?

(01:31):
Are you trying to hurry this along? Here's a tip
for for for me to you steer clearer, that O
J guy pal, O J. Simpson. Yeah, there's from a
Dave Letterman top ten from the nineties something about tipping,
and one of them was like, here's a tip, steer
clearer that O J. Fellow pal. I'm glad we're staying

(01:52):
relevant as always. I'm not trying to move it along.
I just thought, since you said he didn't have an intro,
I would document a litt bit of my history as
a waiter. You did, great man. Remember what's his name,
the guy from Scrubs and Gardens State. For some reason,
I always think he was perfect at being that waiter,
Zach Breth. Yeah, for some reason. It was just like

(02:13):
whenever I think of waiters and then I think of
l A, I think of that character. Yeah, the scene
at the beginning and the end of it, I think
that was really based on his experience as a waiter. Yeah,
he wore a lot of eyeliner in the early two
thousand guyliner, So that's called you never heard that phrase,
no guyliner? Yeah, uh so tipping, Josh, this was You've

(02:35):
been pushing this one for a while and it never
got done for various reasons. And I'm glad we got
around to it because I will be one that people.
It's ubiquitous and we'll get tons and tons of email
about this, I guarantee it. Yeah, and it's going to
be helpful because in several points we tell you to
go to trip advisor to look up tipping customs, So yeah,
that's helpful. Well, it's hard to cover tipping customs because

(02:59):
they're print everywhere and for each job, and it's gets
so overwhelming you just have to end up saying, hey,
if you're going to this country, look it up. Or
apparently you need to go through life like Jimmy Conway
and Goodfellas and tip absolutely every single person you see
your mechanic. Did you see that? Did you know you're

(03:21):
supposed to tip your mechanics into twenty bucks or more
for jobs over Like, hey, thanks for overcharging me and
exploiting my ignorance of my car and how it functions.
Here's an extra twenty bucks your mechanic. Yeah, well you
know what, since you brought that up. Uh. There was
a saw on ABC questionnaire is tipping out of control?

(03:45):
And of people say it is. I disagree. You don't
think it's out of control. After reading this, I was like, man,
I'm way cheaper than I realized. Um, and this is
just a question I thought was interesting. What services bother
you the most that you were obliged to tip? Thirty
percent of people said bathroom attendance. Oh I don't tip them.
That's at the top of my list. I don't want

(04:05):
a bathroom attendance. Well, yeah, I can get my own. Well,
it makes me want to not watch my hands. It
makes me just want to get out of there. Uh.
Take out food tipping, it irks people to pay for
like when you get a takeout order, Like when you
go there and they just turn around and get your
food and handed to you in a bag you like
when you call it in. You don't tip them? I do,

(04:28):
do you really? Yeah? Okay, what else? Salons? Well, yeah,
one of people don't like tipping the salon because women
say it's just endless because you gotta tip your colors
and the people who watch I can see that. And
then the tip jars at coffee houses. I rarely patronize
those as well, coffee houses or tip jars, And the

(04:50):
reason being is, um, I I'm sure I will be
taken to task for this. I don't think people in
coffee houses are paid the tipped wage. They're not, so
I looked at it. I might as well walk around
with the tip jar and ask people to give me
their change. I'll even wear a change belt. How about

(05:10):
that doesn't make it easier on you? Well, why would
you even have a tip jar there if you're not
getting paid the tipped wage. That brings up a big point,
because that is a big controversy. People at Starbucks start
out about eight fifty to nine bucks an hour. Is
that this's minimum wage? That's above the minimum wage? Just
I think seven is a minimum wage? Now, the tipped
the Fair Standards and Labor Act, the minimum federal hourly

(05:33):
wage for tipped employees is two thirteen. Yes, yes, those
people although usually getting tipped. Yeah, no, it doesn't know
not necessarily. Now, well, most states have their own and
it's more than two thirteen. It's I didn't get that
most states too. I know the pinnacle is Colorado and
they have like a minimum tipped wage of four thirteen

(05:53):
an hour, and that's what everybody's like, Wow, Colorado is
really killing it. UM. I know here in Georgia it's
the it's the federal minimum. And there's a group called
fairy eats dot org that's dedicated to um shaming restaurants
that that just adhere to that by celebrating restaurants that

(06:13):
pay their employees more than the minimum federal minimum tipped wage. Well,
you're supposed to make up the difference as a restaurant
from what employees claim to the I r S and
their tipped money. If that doesn't equal minimum wage, then
the restaurateur is supposed to make up that difference in wages.
I would I would wager that that does not happen. Well,

(06:35):
I would wager that not many tipped employees are reporting
all of their tips either. That's true too, So it's
kind of like you have to, you have to, and
then both just kind of storm away disgruntled. But you
don't tip McDonald's. You don't tip it. And for the
same reason I don't tip people at coffee houses, because
it's the same thing. You are putting your my order

(06:57):
in right into a cash register or cash register computing machine. Um,
and you're turning around and grabbing my coffee or my
my fries or whatever, right, And I'm not demeaning or
diminishing that job whatsoever. Like I'm very happy that you're
doing that because I really want that. And you're standing
between me and the fries, right, so hand him over.

(07:19):
I'll give you this money, but you make like a
maybe you got health benefits at Starbucks. So in my opinion,
we can either entirely do away with tipping by raising
everybody to at least the minimum wage, and while we're
at it, let's also maybe double the minimum wage because
it's laughable still, right, um, and just do away with tipping,

(07:43):
just go totally Japan or or we need to really
make it clear who's depending on tips and who's not.
And these jokers at coffee houses need to get rid
of the tip jar and they need to stop calling
it karma, which I think we went over in them
or whatever. Yeah, that's kind of that's passive aggressive guilty,

(08:06):
you think. All right, So that was our intro tipping.
So let's talk about where this often vilely exploited act
came from. Chuck, go ahead, Well I feel like I
was on a rant. I was too, just okay, Um, Well,
let's see tipping they think has its origins in about

(08:31):
the sixteenth century in Europe, where if you went and
visited a friend, a relative of colleague, you went to
their house. Uh, you would often tip their servants, especially
if you got really drunk and soiled yourself and they
cleaned you up. You might be like, here's a couple
of pieces of gold, let's just keep this between you
and me, okay, And they would, and over time it

(08:53):
became much less of a way to um show your
appreciation as something that was expected and depended on. Right.
Once you start kind of giving money in a customary manner,
people start to include that in their budgets, right yeah. Um,

(09:14):
so they think that that's possibly where the custom came from.
Right yeah. I don't even think that this this acronym thing
is even valid at all. No, and it's not at
There's a guy named Steve Doblonica who's written books on tipping.
He's got some pretty good research down And you want
to say the acronym, uh, t I P two in

(09:35):
ensure with an eye promptness. But that's just there's no
way no, because number one acronyms didn't really come into
use until the nineteen twenties. Yeah, they weren't using acronyms
in the sixteenth century. And the word tip itself has
been around for long before that. And like you said,
it should be it shouldn't be tipped ensure with an eye,
it should be ensure with an e. So there's a

(09:56):
lot wrong with that. What they think is that tipping
um originally came from the uh this kind of word
among thieves, which is how we use it today, like
you tip somebody off. That it basically to give something right, right,
And it was just basically common thieves slang um. But
then the act of tipping itself also came from either

(10:21):
the servants, from tipping servants or it also was it
grew out of giving money to somebody who worked at
the bar to buy their own drink as well get
a drink for yourself on me. And in fact, the
word tip in Slavic languages translates roughly to drinking money
on the word for tip in French is poor beer

(10:45):
pour boi which means for drinking and um, basically everywhere
else except in English, the word tip means drinking money.
So that's probably where tipping came from. I like that
origin here. I'm have been a good time, I had
a few drinks. Go by yourself one exactly, it's just
spreading the joy. Or I'm at my buddy's house and

(11:07):
I've drank until I soiled myself. There's some money for
cleaning me up last night. I appreciate it. I don't
know about the train spotting the origin of tipping. Yeah,
so this is this is probably where tipping came from.
And uh, a little more history if you don't mind
chuckers um, you can pretty much pinpoint how tipping became
a customed in the United States. Because it was all

(11:30):
a rage in Europe, it was not caught on here
in the US. Even though a lot of wealthy Americans
were traveling to Europe and coming back and tipping, people
were like, what are you doing? Like, sure, give me
your money, but I'm not gonna do the same thing.
Until the Pullman Company, the Pullman rail car company, figured
out that they could grossly underpay their porters by publicizing

(11:51):
that they relied on tips to survive, and basically the
Pullman company cut almost three million dollars in the in
the like late nineteenth century, there was a lot of
money from their payroll by basically relying on their customers
good hearts to take care of their porters for him.
It is when you think about it in those terms,

(12:11):
it is sort of a dirty business. It's like, hey,
we don't want to pay our employees. They're serving you,
so you pay them. But like you're the one reaping
all the reward of the five dollar a cup of
coffee exactly, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And a
lot of a lot of restaurants, or a lot of
people in the on the restaurant side of this debate say, well,

(12:32):
if we start raising their wages to like the minimum
wage or even like double the tip wage, um, we're
gonna go under. And apparently some studies have found that
that's actually not the case that they can come out
on top because restaurant owners spend so much money on
training through turnover, because the wages are so low that
people just hop from job to job wherever they can

(12:52):
get the most tips. If you can offer a higher
stable wage, you're gonna have much less turnover and ultimately,
in the long run, you may come out on top
as a restaurant owner. So interesting, possibly that's one side.
You know, who pays the customer? Yeah, us, because middle
class You pay the five bucks for a cup of coffee,
which the company gets they don't have to pay. Well,
they do pay their employee minimum wage, but that ain't much,

(13:15):
and then they get the little tip on top of that,
and you end up paying six fifty for your cup
of coffee. And you know what now that you're you're
bringing this up, you mean I were at Caribou and um,
they have I love Caribou coffee, right, but they had
this promo where it was like beans for the Troops
or something like that, and it was like, hey, go
ahead and uh and buy this this fifteen dollar pound

(13:36):
of coffee and we'll send them to the troops. And um,
we asked if they were selling them at a discount,
like if the Cariboo was doing anything. They were like, no,
that's a regular price. And we're like, so wait a minute,
you're exploiting Americans affinity and affection for the troops as
a way to you know, beef up your on ground

(13:57):
bean sales. That was disgusting. If you ask me, it happens,
that's gross. At that board meeting is the gross part
where that's decided. You know where we can really record, right,
all right, I knew this would be a lightning rod.
This is just us were going to get. Oh boy, well,
since you brought it up, it is a lightning rod. Period.

(14:19):
If you go on the internet and you start looking
about tipping, you will find two camps. People that work
for tips that are outraged that people don't want to tip,
or the under tip, and then people that say it
is out of control. Every you know, you go on
a vacation, you stay in a hotel and need a restaurants,
you're Jimmy Conway. I again, like I was reading this,

(14:40):
I'm like, oh man, dude, do other people tip all
these people? Because I feel like a real jerk in
some of these cases I do, and I end up
feeling like a sucker. And then you know what I thought,
I was like, well, I never carried cash, it's all plastic,
so surely plastic leading to a decline in tipping. I
did a search for that, no, no, all I could
find with that most people carry plastic and a little

(15:02):
bit of currency for tips. I'm like, oh man, I
really have to get on the ball here, just like
starts so much. Stop all right. They've actually done a

(15:33):
lot of studying about tips. Yeah, why do we do this? Yes,
the psychology tipping, as it were, well, um, one is
out of guilt. Yeah, wasn't that one of the reasons.
Uh well yeah not Supposedly if you think about tipping,
the whole ideas that you're doing it out of gratitude,
like you did a really good job and I want
to make sure that you have, um, this extra little

(15:55):
bit go buy yourself something nice on me, or I
want to ensure because as I come back to you
that I will get that same service when I come back, right,
So really it's um. What they're finding is that it's
guilt and fear, like you know that people rely on
these tips, and part of your role as customer in
some circumstances is to pay these people their salary that

(16:19):
they're depending on the tips, or you're afraid that they're
going to pee in your soup and you're basically saying,
here's some money, Um, please don't be in my soup,
and they say all right, that that's gonna do it.
That that that takes care of the no peace soup, Levy. Yeah,
but the tip comes after the soup. Yeah, but you

(16:39):
may be back there again, okay, right, yes. Uh. The
Center for Hospitality at Cornell University, Uh, they've done some
research there and I thought this was fairly interesting. They
found the US leads the world in uh being neurotic
and being extroverted, and those are two traits that lead
to big tips because you're you're neurotic, so you feel like,

(17:00):
course I have to leave. You know, anyone who's ever
seen the Curb Your Enthusiasm tip episode, that's like tipping
neuroticism at its finest portraye. You want to tip as
much as your friend. You don't want to undertip. You
want to tip just you don't want to overtip. You
want to tip just the right amount. I don't mind
over tipping, especially when it's like it's really good service.
Ye Like, I'm happy to overtip, and I prefer to

(17:22):
air on the side of over tipping. Right. For sure.
Extroverts are outgoing social folks, and they see it as
an incentive to get a little extra attention, like make
a big show about me. Party of Benjamin, party of four,
Benjamin Franklin, party of four. I never heard that. Yeah,

(17:43):
yaman's got a story about this one. Dude, Wow, you
won'ta tell it. Well, it was pretty much it. They
were she and her boyfriend at the time and his
friend were at this restaurant and um, the guy actually said,
uh Franklin party of four, and she said it worked.
She couldn't believe it. She was like, I felt bad

(18:03):
about the guy we're with and the guy who took
the money, but you said it was good, interesting, good meal.
I've never agreas to palm for like a table. I
haven't either. That's a good move, though I wish i'd
like to do that. It is, but really it's kind
of like, man, you you give up a lot of
any claim to the even if you don't make that
much money, if you're walking around doing stuff like that.

(18:25):
You know, speaking of did you see the internet meme
going around about the Tipper, Yes, which apparently totally unfounded.
Now I don't. I think it's sort of unfounded. I
thought he was a one percent tipper. He's a one
percent temper because he is part of the one percent,
And from what I understood was the tip was real,
but what he wrote on there was fabricated. Well, or

(18:47):
that they didn't even know for sure he was a banker,
then the whole thing is fabricated. I did see that though.
By the way I mean this, this is breaking news,
is like yesterday for four weeks ago. So can we
go back to some some of the interesting studies about
how you get good tips. This is Josh and Chucks.
If you're a waiter or a waitron, here are our

(19:08):
tips for you to increase your tips. And this restaurant,
this isn't just us in our observations. Again, Cornell has
put a lot of thought and energy into it. I
believe in real research. There's been a lot of studies
about how and why we tip. One of them is touching.
Like if you are a server and you touch the

(19:30):
your customer, you will increase your tip. And it's not
just lonely horny men, um men and women of all
ages um will increase their tip with just a brief
touch on the shoulder from eleven point eight percent to
fourteen point eight percent. I, however, do not like to
be touched. I don't either. I'm glad. You said that

(19:51):
to me the other day and I was just like, like,
what are you doing? It didn't freak me out, like
it's not something I don't know you, you don't know me. Yeah,
let's keep our hands to ourselves, okay, right, and then
we'll see where your tip goes. Did his tip go down? No,
of course not. You should have punished him severely. How
god do you have that power in your so much
former waiter guilt tip on bad service as I do.

(20:17):
As long as you have the right attitude, that makes
the biggest difference. If you're like, oh, yeah, really sorry
and it was bad service and you said I'm sorry, guys,
you know I let you down the night unless you're
being manipulative by doing that, and you really just couldn't
have cared less you phoned it in and then you said, oh,
really sorry that I can't too. Yeah, intentions go a

(20:37):
long way with me, all right. Squatting And this was
my big move when I was a waiter, because you're
a squatter at my at my at the nice restaurant
I worked at, it was my big move. I would
kneel down next to the table A lot of times.
You get that eye contact going on, and your tips
are going to go up from fourteen point nine percent
to seventeen point five. Okay, I would also like to

(20:59):
add a caveat to this. However, if you actually get
into the booth or take a seat at the table,
you've crossed the line. Well I I used to do
that at Mexicali, though, but that was a college atmosphere,
and that that would be acceptable at certain times. Even
in college at Mexicali. No, no, no, that was over
the line. No, no, no, no. It was fun girls

(21:20):
drinking margharita's. I would sit down and flirt and would
your tip go up? Yeah, and occasionally I would get
a phone number out of it and free margarita. That's that,
Well I had I worked there, I got all the
free margaritis I wanted. I didn't realize they gave free
margharita's to employees at Mexicali. Well they didn't officially anyw
weren't supposed to have them while you're working either. Those

(21:41):
were the old days. Giving candy to uh to your
customer will jump your tip up from fifteen point one
to seventeen point eight. Giving two pieces of candy one
initially and one spontaneously like here have another jumped it
from nineteen per cent to six percent, So long as

(22:02):
you didn't end it with chumps. I'm sorry that jumped
it when it was the spontaneous second piece chumps by
being like, oh well you know what, here take two
and we're talking like the starlight peppermints here, Okay, there's
not like good dive at chocolate. Yes, thank you for
rescuing me, because I almost said snickers. That'd be nice

(22:24):
to you. I had a waitress recently give Emily and
I the pin that she gave us to sign the
bill with because I'm a big pen guy, so as
Emily and as far as having like the perfect pen,
and I signed things like, oh my god, feel this
pin and it was a combination of the pin on
that that slimy paper that they give you and it

(22:44):
was amazing. And Emily said something that she was like,
I agree, I keep them in my carlum so much.
Go ahead and keep that one. And how much of
it tipped you leave her? I left her my pen.
No I'm kidding, Oh yeah, sure I tipped her. Well, No,
it's always like the highest you goes twenty five. Yeah,

(23:06):
I mean I go, I go twenty, and I round up.
No matter what I noticed, especially before the um uh well, no,
I guess it would have been even after the economic collapse,
the global catastrophe that we're in the midst of, still
um that it was moving very clearly towards across the

(23:28):
board was the new percent, and then the economic meltdown happened,
and all of a sudden, now it's back to fifteen
percent and twenty percent if you're doing good. It seems like,
am I wrong? Am I just fantasizing here? No? I
think it used to be ten, that it was like
twelve and fifteen and then twenty and then yeah, you're
right with the economic crisis. I did read articles that

(23:48):
people said, our tips are going down. But it's a
collective movement, you know what I'm saying, Like, you can
be the nice guy in tip twenty all the time
or whatever, but you're also kind of pushing everybody else
forward by doing that. Yeah. I also do the deal
to where you know, you go out with certain people
and you whoa, whoa, whoa. What does that mean? I've

(24:09):
got like eight different homes. I don't want. I don't
want to call out any any person or even are
you talking about a specific buddy of yours? No, not buddy,
just you know, could be family members, could be certain friends.
Just you know, when someone picks up the tab, I
always do the thing where I look to make sure
that they were properly compensated. Then on the way and
it's like, oh, I got to use a bathroom, I'll
go put more money in there. Oh you're an underminer.

(24:30):
Huh yeah, because certain people, Oh man, I wish I
could say who. I had a friend whose father was
in a very rich dude, and he was a bad
tipper and it embarrassed the crud out of me when
we would go to these nice places and he would
pick up the tab and leave like a eight to
ten tip. And so I always need to bring cash
to leave in the thing. Jared Hess's dad. No, No,

(24:55):
just like start so much. All right, So that's it.

(25:19):
How to increase your tips? Oh, tell him it's sunny outside. Yeah.
The psychology of weather strikes again where the study was conducted.
Where if um a in a windowless room, right yeah, uh,
if the waiter describes it as being rainy out, the
tips were something like nineteen. This isn't too bad. But
if the waiter was like, oh, it's so sunny and

(25:40):
beautiful out, then tips average. So squat at the table,
touch him on the shoulder, give him candy, Give him candy,
and then all of a sudden you've got two pieces
of candy, and uh, give good service, and then tell
them it's sunny outside and you will be rolling in
the dead makes like a million dollars table. Thank you
s later, and tip on the original amount. By the way,

(26:03):
that's a waiter thing. It's a big one. If you
if you got coupons or you do the scalp mob thing,
be aware that you're you should tip on the original amount.
You kind of have to. It's not the waiter's fault.
You had a coupon. Yeah, I mean that is really
bad if you don't know that at this point, especially
with how ubiquitous those those deals are getting these days.
You know, um, but chuck. On the other hand, you

(26:25):
can make a pretty strong argument that, um, if you
order a hundred dollar bottle of wine, do you tip that? So? Why? Why? Yeah? Why,
I'd like some nice wine. And that is a bone
of contention that I swallow and I just still tip

(26:45):
on the total amount. But yeah, you're right if you
Let's say you just order a bottle of wine, like mean, Emily,
We're just gonna go have a bottle of wine one
night because we ate dinner somewhere else, or maybe we
gotta have dessert somewhere, and we get a nice bottle
of port and it's like eighty bucks. You guys drink
a whole bottle of port and no, of course not.
Let's say with a group or whatever, we drink a

(27:06):
whole bottle of port, a group of what like twenty
you're drinking a whole bottle of drinking glass of port,
and there's like five glasses and a bottle. It's like,
that's small. It's like a regular wine glass. What do
you drink brandy like that? No, because that's liquor poored
is wine? No, brandy is a type of wine. Okay, anyway,

(27:28):
do you you're like Homer Simpson when he was baby
sending Mr. Burne's house when he like pours himself like
a whole sniffer brandy and drinks the whole thing and
when when gulp and then just falls right over my
friend Timmy's wife one time asked for a bourbon on
the rocks at her house, and she bought me like
seven ounces of bourbon on the rocks, and I was like,

(27:48):
what are you trying to do to me? That's awesome. No,
but port's not You're not supposed to have be a
little it's not like sambuca. I mean ports, like a
regular glass of wine. Right. I'm mistaken then, because every
place I go they pour your regular, regular glass. Know
it's a little tiny, like it's like a cordial wine glass. No, no, no, no, no,
I promise. All right, well you're gonna be wrong regardless.
You drink expensive wine and how how much do you tip? Well,

(28:11):
but it does cross my mind, like, man, I'm giving
this guy like fourteen dollars for bringing me the bottle
of wine. It's a good point, and I think even
the average server would grudgingly agree. Okay, all right, maybe
maybe not on this one. But it's not just the
waiter that you want to tip in the restaurant, surprise, surprise.
Depending on where you go, you need to be prepared

(28:31):
to tip a lot of people. Yeah, the the person
who see to you. Maybe if it's a really nice place.
The matri d if the matri d goes out of
his way, um to get you a very nice table,
or you feel like he's he or she is doing
something um very just kind of above and beyond, you
might want to slip from fifteen to twenty bucks. There's
a lot also if the Somalia comes over to your

(28:54):
table and tells you a bit about the wines, especially
if you solicited this advice. Yeah. In reading this article,
I realized that I have stiffed at least one Somalia
in my life, and now I understand why he was
looking at me weird when he finished. Um uh, you
you want to give them anywhere from ten to twenty bucks,
depending on how in depth the recommendation is. And usually

(29:16):
when you're talking tips at least in this article that
we're working from from how stuff Works dot com. Um,
there's a high and a low. Yeah, And it's basically
the discrepancy is based on just how much effort this
person is putting into it, how much enthusiasm, um, but
and just how much out of their out of the
way of their normal duties are they going. See here's

(29:38):
my deal, dude, I don't want a big show. I
want genuine good service. And and to be left alone
because you you can. The tip won't go down because
I just have the guilt. But you can go down
in my mind if you're just too like just too much,
don't work too hard, don't give me a big show.
Apparently they can do whatever they want to and they're

(29:59):
still gonna get same amount of money. You know what, chuck.
You know where you would do well, then buffets. At
a buffet, you serve yourself and you just leave your
plate and it mysteriously vanishes. But that's a person behind
the kidnapping of that plate, and you want to leave
them about ten percent as a recommendation, So you want
to leave them thirty five cents at your buffet. I

(30:20):
don't go to buffet's. But yeah, you don't go to buffet's. No,
I don't understand the existence of cafeterias, since there's buffets.
It's the same exact thing, except buffets are all you
can eat, and cafeterias like, here's a little ramikin of
the same thing you can have ten helpings of if
you want for the same price. Well, you don't see
a lot of cafeterias anymore, you do, you do? Yeah,

(30:42):
there's at least as many cafeterias as there are buffets.
Oh no, yeah, I think the Chinese food restaurants have
made that a null and void comment the Chinese food Okay, alright,
so though they exist outside of this realm, I'm talking
more like country cook and buffets. Yeah, there's almost one
for one all right. Uh. And by the way, most

(31:03):
most nicer restaurants pulled their tips, um like it mexicality
was every man for himself. You know, the bus boy
didn't get tips. Right. Actually, we kind of bust our
own tables. But most restaurants will pull their tips in
the the that's usually not a matre d at that point,
it's just the hoster, hostess. They'll get a cut, and
like the bartender and the bus boy they'll they'll get dishwasher.

(31:27):
They'll all get a cut. So just remember that. But
some places it's every man for himself too. Uh. If
speaking of bartenders, you are at a bar, I usually
tip a bucket drink for the first few drinks. That's
what I do. Um, unless it's a very If it's
like a complex, complicated drink, which I tend to prefer, um,
it will be like a percentage of the bill if

(31:49):
there's really muddling going on. Yes, Once you start muddling,
I'm like, all right, here's some extra money. Yeah. I
don't tip on the bill because we'll usually just say,
give us six PBRs for my friends and I and O,
then tip a bucket. Even if the beer is a dollar.
I'll give a dollar. That's very nice of you, you know,
because it's like, what am I gonna like fish around
for fifteen cents? That's just ridiculous. But you know, we're rich,

(32:12):
we're high rollers. You're tipping a buck a buck for
a dollar beer chuckow podcasting business. Uh. Cafes and coffee houses.
I think we've kind of covered that. I tend to
tip out of guilt there. But I don't go to
a lot of coffee shops because I don't drink a
lot of coffee. Do you really see those guys in
the eyes while I'm not tipping them? Do you want?

(32:35):
The worst is we're checking out the grocery store and
they're like, would you like to give a dollar to
the you know whatever foundation? That's fifty fifty for me
depending on my mood. Really, yeah, I mean like I
should do it every time. But um, yeah, and that's
sad that helping out kids with muscular distrophy is equated
to tipping. Well it's not, but yeah, I know what

(32:55):
you mean, um holiday tipping, which was a big part
of that Curb Your Enthusiasm Enthusiasm episode when you do
this when you were have money. I think it's generally
for people that have a little more money and they
live in places where they know the service people helping. Yeah,
like the guy at the country club and the guy
you know this and that. But you can deliver your

(33:16):
newspaper or your garbage collector your newspaper delivery person. You
can tip your mailman. My brother used to when he
worked at uh the movie theaters would give every holidays,
he would give out movie tickets that yeah, to like
the mailman and to the garbage person and stuff like that. Um,
fifteen bucks they say for your garbage collector, your dog walker,

(33:40):
your nanny, your cleaning service, they say one week's pay.
I save a lot of money every year by not
having those people set up to tip them. Uh yes, manicurist,
you have manicurists supposed to tip them ten to fifty
I do. And you know the way around this, go
to different manicurists every time, so that you're not you're
not a you're not a common enough customer that you

(34:03):
feel like you need to tip them at the holidays.
Hairdressers women obviously the ones who are probably been in
the big bucks at the hairdresser, they say undred and
this is for the holidays. You understand, it's not each visit.
This is hey, it's Christmas. You also have to tip
them each visit. I get a fourteen dollar haircut, I
tipped six bucks? What well? Because what am I gonna

(34:25):
give them nineteen dollars? Wow? Or two dollars? Okay? That
just seems really cheap to me to say, like, thanks
for the great haircut that's gonna last me three months.
Here's eight quarters. Huh. I tipped my haircut lady all
over the place. What are you tipper? I kisses and

(34:47):
hugs and stuff like that. You may cut your hair
um hotels. Uh, you're This is something that I have
just recently learned. I didn't know you're supposed to tip
them the maid service. I knew that, but I thought
that was something from maybe the fifties. And that's how
I like, um comforted myself by not tipping the maids.
But yeah, apparently we're supposed to be doing that a lot.

(35:08):
One to ten dollars per night, depending on the mess
you make. I am extremely clean and I clean up
before I leave the hotel. It depends on if they
change you, if you soiled yourself the night before. Bell
hoops a dollar per bag if it's bulky and large
or heavy and awkward, maybe a little bit more of that. Yeah,
more than a buck. That one I totally get. Still

(35:29):
don't do it because I frequently don't use bell hops.
I do it myself. But um, I hate that when
they force you to like walk you into the room
and show you around and stuff. I would much rather
just carry my own bag, just give me my key
card again with a big show. I don't want a
big show. Right, Well, apparently they remember that. One study
found that bell hoops who do make a big show
of things by showing people how to how to operate

(35:53):
the thermostat in the TV and opening the drapes and
offering to fill the ice bucket, they almost doubled their
average tip. But I wonder if there was people who
are like, here's some money, just please go away. Which
is one of the ords, is a tipping to remember
throwing money for uh concierge five to ten dollars depending
on how helpful. Remember when we were at the Pittsburgh

(36:15):
Fairmont and our buddy Chad gave the concierge like ten
bucks for a wreck and it turned out to be
a bad recommendation and he was on man, he wanted
his money back. What was the recommendation? I didn't go.
I was eating Indian food by myself in my room
the whole thing. It was for a restaurant that was
either closed or it was like it was just a
bad tip. And he was like, didn't get his money back? No,

(36:35):
of course not. I'll bet he did not stop complaining
about it. That he kept going and going. Uh. And
I didn't know until recently, you're supposed to tip the concierge.
I'm a dummy. I didn't know that. Well, I mean
they helped you out, and depending I thought they were
much help they are, yeah, I mean like they concierge,
and I've never had one do this for me. I've

(36:57):
never really needed the services of concierge, but seas can
like really go to town. I'm making your life easy.
They can make yours. They can get you tickets to
a show, like yeah, sure, all sorts of things. They
can buy your kid a toy. If you're staying at
a nice enough place, oh and you're busy or whatever
shopping that you can find your shopper. This is, you

(37:20):
know what, in the in the spirit of keeping the
tradition of facts alive. I made that last part up,
but it seems like a safe assumption. Oh sure they would, okay,
uh doorman, tip your doorman if they If they hail
a taxi, tip them a buck. A lot of them
aren't allowed to accept tips, so don't be surprised if
they hand it back. All right. Deliveries this is a

(37:42):
big one for me. I get Chinese food delivery. It's
about the only delivery I get. Oh yeah, maybe the
occasional pizza where you order from. I order from a
place indicator of Chinese food place. Yeah, it's good, but
they take forever. Yeah. Yeah, see that'll cut down on
a tip with me. Well, especially if I'm really hungry
when I order. We've learned to order before we're hungry

(38:04):
from this place. It's smart like Tuesday, Yeah exactly, they
say to tip two to five bucks on your on
your food delivery to your home, depending on the weather,
m the amount of danger depending on the neighborhood you
live in. Yeah, my neighborhoods dangerous. I was not talking
about your neighborhood. It's really not that man. Um Flower
deliveries one to ten bucks, depending on the arrangement. I

(38:27):
spent a little time as a flower delivery person, and
I can tell you that most people don't tip their
flower delivery guy, even though they're bringing this bit of
sunshine into your life. I assume that goes for fruit
delivery too, with those silly fruit displays, unless ironically, you're
dressed like a piece of fruit while you're delivering it.
Then the tips to start pouring out. Furniture delivery like

(38:51):
large things. I can tell you I did that as well,
Very large furniture among the heaviest arm wars you can
possibly conceive of our fabric. If you delivered to the
home of like someone age sixty five or older, there
was about a sixty percent chance they were going to
tip you. Anybody below that was like, hey, thanks, thanks
for coming. Don't don't get hit by a car on

(39:11):
your way out. See my history with tipping with the
elderly is they don't tip as much. It depends, It depends.
It depends on the industry. You're in restaurant because tipping,
I think, and it used to be a lot more
ubiquitous than it is now. Right, So yeah, So like
a furniture delivery like, that's why the older generation I

(39:33):
would get a tip from him more frequently, because there
was a time when you tipped everybody like that. Our
generation wasn't raised like that. I mean, do you tip
the furniture delivery guy. I pick up my own furniture buddy, Okay,
but you probably wouldn't like the mover, let's say, like
the people who help you move. I think it's expected
you pay the big, huge moving costs and you tip

(39:55):
the guys on top of that. Man, I've got a
lot of at to self reflection. Sky Cap. I took
five bucks a bag for sky Cap. I must be
a sucker because it says in here two dollars a bag.
Very good. What's next? Um shuttle drivers at the airport.
I didn't know you're supposed to tip them. You're not.
This is all made up Cabby in New York. They

(40:19):
make it very easy on. You know. You just put
in the percentage you want in the little computer and
it'll add it to your to your credit card, which
is great valet. If I like you, which is frequent,
you get two bucks. If I don't like you, you
can get as little as zero dollars. I try to
give to UM. I feel bad though when I don't
have it, and I'm just like a man, and sometimes
I'll say, can I go get my own car? Dude,

(40:41):
I don't have any cash. Yeah, I'll say that too,
and they say, no, we'll go get it. There was
an I'll fart in it, you know they will, Oh
they will, Yeah, I'll soil myself in your car. Uh, mechanic.
I had no idea that this is why it's made up.
You don't tip your mechanic. Who what are they talking about?

(41:02):
I had no idea. I think this is from like
the Gentleman's Guide to Life edition to tip your mechanic
ten to twenty dollars for any of your job over.
I had no idea. Gas station attendance like they exist
anymore or Oregon or wherever. If you if if they
voluntarily check your fluids, meaning the ones in your car, uh,

(41:26):
you should tip them one to two dollars? Is it Oregon?
You do? You have to get your gas pumping. I
remember in New Jersey. I think I've even told you this.
My girlfriend had never pumped her gas. She was like, oh, yeah,
you did tell me that. Yeah, we are friend Van Nostri.
He lives in Washington, which is nearby Oregon, so he
probably knows about that. We should ask him. Yeah. Um,

(41:49):
so international tipping, it's way way too much to go
over and we hate to cop out, but you really
do need to go online because there's tons of information.
When go to visit a country, it's all different. Look
it up before you go so you don't look like
a schmuck. Yeah. Um, there are a couple of rules
of thumb. You should, like you said, familiarize yourself. You know.

(42:12):
Not knowing the value of the currency is not an excuse. Um,
and um, don't use US currency. Yeah, that's a here's
a couple of American dollars for you, Mr Costa Rican.
Don't disrupt your g d P. Yeah that's that's uh
cop out, that's b S. Convert it and give them
their currents. Yeah, because they have to go to an
exchange place, and you know, everybody has a cameo in

(42:35):
their in their neighborhood or and you know, I guess
some countries I think, like like Puerto Rico and stuff like,
they can use American dollars like place because it's an
American territory. Well now, and I think even like Jamaica
in a lot of these places close to the US
in the Caribbean, I think, well, they can use American

(42:56):
dollars as well, so it's not so obnoxious. Can we
go over some people who you don't have to tip?
Which I was very relieved to hear some of these
are Are there? Is there anyone that you don't have
to tip? Restaurant owners? You're not supposed to tip, salon owners,
basically any owner of an establishment, you don't tip unless
they're the ones providing the service to you. Um food

(43:19):
deliveries under thirty bucks. I don't know what that is.
That doesn't make any sense to me. Here's my favorite.
I was so glad to know that I don't I
can go ahead and stop tipping flight attendants. You don't
have to tip flight attendants. Did you know that? I
did not know anyone would do that? Bus drivers, theater rushers.
You have to tip shuttle drivers, but you're not supposed

(43:41):
to tip bus drivers. This place is crazy, that's what
I'm saying. The rules are so like you you don't
tip McDonald's, but you do tip the coffee person even
though you can get a coffee at McDonald's. Salespeople you
don't tip them. And employees at fast food restaurants, air
airline flight attendants. I can't believe some and actually wrote
down that you don't have to tip them. So, Um,

(44:05):
there's a lot of federal stuff going on right now,
my friend, Uh, there's something up. So the the federal
tipped minimum wage has been the same since it's at
two an hour because of inflation. That whole concept was
created in nineteen sixty six. Because of inflation. It's never
been less valuable than it is right now relative to

(44:26):
the cost of living. So it's a big deal for
people who make their living, you know, in service industries. Um.
Before Congress right now, there's Hr thirty one, the Working
for Adequate Gains for Employment and Services or the Wages Act.
Congress is so clever. Um, but basically it would tie
the federal tip minimum wage to sixty of the federal

(44:47):
minimum wage. So every time there's a hike, there would
also be a hike in the federal TIPMU minimum wage.
And that act would raise it right now to four
thirty five an hour, which is, you know, double what
they're making, but still way below just over half of
you know, the federal minimum wage. And if you want
to go join a group that lobbies on behalf of

(45:07):
people who should make a decent wage in the service industry,
you can check out fair eats dot org, f A
I R e A t s dot org. And that
buddy is a local group. Really there, Atlanta based a
lot of restaurants here. I have a list, Josh of
best and worst celebrity tippers. Oh nice, Yeah, this is

(45:29):
very TMZ, although it wasn't from TMZ. And I hesitate
to even read these because take it with a grain
of salt. A lot of these stories I don't know
for true, and I'm not going to get into the stories,
but you'll be pleased to know that our ghostbusters Dan
Ackroyd and Bill Murray are legendary good tippers. Awesome, you
would think Drew barrymore great tipper. I could see that

(45:50):
Russell Crowe kind of surprised me. Apparently Tipper. Apparently he's
a really good tipper. I would not have guessed that.
And the whole smashing your face with the phone incident
was out of character for him. Wait, I thought he
like got in fights all the time. I don't know.
Drew Carey, good tipper, hul Cogan, Charlie Sheen. I'll bet
Charlie Sheen leaves more than just money as tips. David Beckham,

(46:13):
Johnny Depp apparently really really good tipper. And then I
cross reference the list of worst tippers on because there's
all sorts of sites where people where you can go
as a wait tron and say so until came in
my restaurant last night and they did X, Y and Z,
So I did cross reference some of these. Mick Jagger,
the rock Bill Cosby Is was on every list. I'm

(46:34):
sad to say I am not the least bit surprised.
Kirsten dunst weird, Madonna, Tiger Woods was on every list, Usher,
Britney Spears, and Jeremy Piven was on every list. Sean
Penn really yeah, David Byrne, Dude, this is so disappointing

(46:55):
if it's true. David Byrne of The Talking Heads is
considered one of the worst tippers ever because apparently he
does not tip periods like, oh yeah, I don't tip.
That is two episodes in a row that feature reser
boar dogs. Michael Moore supposedly, what wait a minute. If

(47:18):
this is true, Michael Moore, and you are a friend
of Michael Morris who listens to stuff, you should know,
please play this for him. You should be ashamed of yourself,
sir ashamed. It said once less left than left, left
less than twenty dollars on a four fifty dollar bill
and see all these though. I say take with a
grain of salt though, because because it could just be

(47:39):
the ones and the ones who's not had any money.
Maybe maybe the server was a big Republican jerk that
he didn't like. Because it is Michael Moore. You remember
that part, does you see Capitalism a love Story? Yeah?
And he's like, hey, I'm looking for some some advice.
And one of the traders was like, stop making movies.
It was awest alright, So I'm not gonna embarrass anymore

(47:59):
of these bowl like Molly Ringwald and Ricky Lake like
being really worried about like her her finances and Rachel
Ray she was on a bunch of the sites too.
They said she's cheap. I could see her being cheap too.
You know what, I'm not surprised by all them. Don't
be cheap people. I mean, you make tons of money,
spread it around, and I'm those socialists. But come on,

(48:21):
just bring a little joy into someone's life like Bill
Murray does. Yeah, but not Bill Cosby. Be more like
Bill Murray, not like Bill Cosby. Okay, yes, all right,
that's our big takeaway. That's it for our list of
most hated celebrities. If you want to learn more about that,
you can type tipping into the search bar at how
stuff works dot com. Right, that's right, that's t I

(48:42):
P P I n G, which is what That's like
a palindrome or something. Almost didn't it? Uh, let's see,
I said search bar how stuff works dot com, which
means it's time for listener mail. Josh, I'm gonna call
this one Dueling Vikings. Call it that though from a
dude from Viking Land. He says, Hi, guys, just finished

(49:05):
listening to the Dueling podcast. I thought i'd share a
bit on how they were handled in Nordic countries back
when they were pillaging the rest of Europe and berserking
at every opportunity. Despite the outward appearance of being crazy
axe wielding pirates, the Vikings prefer to keep things civil
on the home front. Thus the concept of home gang
was created. A home is a small island and gang

(49:27):
means to go. So when two parties where odds over
an insult a woman or property, they would go to
a tiny island or the tip of a peninsula where
some similar isolated area to duke get out Viking style.
They would take a three by three meter square of
ox hide, spread it on the ground, and stake each
corner and rope between them, much like a modern boxing ring.

(49:51):
Each home gunger typically wielded an axe or a heavy
sword and had with him three wooden shields. The challenging
party I'm sorry, the channel lunch party would have first strike,
and they would then proceed taking turns to hammer away
at each other, shield broken shields being replaced with the
two spares along the way, and the first man struck

(50:11):
bodily would typically be considered the loser. Huh. Thanks for
the hundreds of hours of entertaining knowledge and keep being
the awesome dudes. You are your friend in biking land. Uh, Yannick, Johnick,
the K is that Minnesota? J A n N, I
K no, I don't think it's from Minnesota. That's pretty cool, Yannick.

(50:32):
I think it is Kay and then I k Yawnick.
We'll go with that. Okay, thanks a lot, Yannick from Minnesota. Um,
and uh, if you want to know about vikings and
you haven't heard it already, go listen to our How
Vikings Were podcast. Oh that was a good one, very neat. Yeah,
talk about berserkers. Um, let's see. Oh, if you have

(50:52):
a good tipping story, we want to hear it. Um.
You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on face Book at Facebook dot
com slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send us
an email the Stuff podcast to how Stuff worce dot com,
and there's always joined us at our home on the web.
Stuff you Should Know dot Com. Stuff you Should Know

(51:14):
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