Stuff You Should Know - How Tipping Works

Episode Date: March 22, 2012

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 as they take a closer look at the history, practice and controversy surrounding tipping. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast. You ever waited tables? I did. I was awful. How long did you do it?

I did it often, not for many years. But man, I was man. Yeah, I waited tables for many years as well in many, several different states and 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? Are you trying to hurry this along? Here's a tip for me to you. Steer clear of that OJ guy, pal. OJ Simpson? Yeah, there's from Dave Letterman, top 10 from the 90s. Something about tipping and one of them was like, here's a tip. Steer clear of that OJ, fellow pal. I'm glad we're staying relevant, as always. I'm not trying to move it

along. I just thought since you said you didn't have an intro, I would document a little bit of my history as a waiter. You did great, man. I remember, what's his name, the guy from Scrubs and Garden State. For some reason, I always think he was perfect at being that waiter. Zach Braf? Yeah. For some reason, it was just like whenever I think of waiters, and then I think of LA, I think of that character, the scene at the beginning and the end of it. I think that was really based on his experience as a waiter. I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he wore a lot of eyeliner in the early 2000s. Guy liner? Is that what that's called? You never heard that phrase? No. Guy liner? Yeah.

So tipping, Josh, this was, you've 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 this 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 that's helpful. Well, it's hard to cover tipping customs because they're different everywhere and for each job and it 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 supposed to tip your mechanic 10 to 20 bucks or more for jobs over $500? It's like, hey, thanks for overcharging me and exploiting my ignorance of my car and how it functions. Here's an extra 20 bucks. Your mechanic? Yeah. Well, you know what? Since you brought that up, there was, I saw an ABC 2020 questionnaire is tipping out of control. Oh, yeah. And 86% 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. And this is just a question I thought was interesting. What services bother you the most that you're obliged to tip? 30% of people said bathroom

attendance. Oh, I don't tip them. That's at the top of my list. I don't want a bathroom attendant. Well, yeah, I can get my own towel. Use their services. Well, it makes me want to not watch my hands. It makes me just want to get out of there. Takeout food tipping, 29%. It irks people to pay for it. Like when you get a takeout order. Like when you go there and they just turn around and get your food and hand it to you in a bag? Yeah, like when you call it in. You don't tip them? I do. Do you really? Yeah. Okay, what else? Salons. Oh, yeah. 21% of people don't like tipping the salon because women say it's just endless because you got to tip your colorist and the people who wash your hair. Oh, I can see that. And then 20% the tip jars at coffee houses. I rarely patronize

those as well. Coffee houses or tip jars? Tip jars. At coffee houses. And the reason being is 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 it up. 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 that? Just to make it easier on you. 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 at about 850 to 9 bucks an hour. What is that? That's minimum wage. That's above the minimum wage. Just. I think 725 is the minimum wage now. The tipped, the Fair Standards and Labor Act,

the minimum federal hourly wage for tipped employees is 213. Yes. Yes. Those people. Although usually get more tipped. Yeah. No, it doesn't. No, not necessarily. No. Well, most states have their own and it's more than 213. I didn't get that most states do. I know the pinnacle is Colorado and they have like a minimum tipped wage of 413 an hour. And that's what everybody's like, wow, Colorado is really killing it. I know here in Georgia, it's the federal minimum. And there's a group called FairEats.org that's dedicated to shaming restaurants that just adhere to that by celebrating restaurants that 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 IRS 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, 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. Right. But you don't tip a McDonald's. No, 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 my order in, right, into a cash register or a cash register computing machine. And you're turning around and grabbing my coffee or my fries or

whatever. Right. And I'm not demeaning or diminishing that job whatsoever. 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 them over. I'll give you this money. But you make like a 915 hour maybe you got health benefits. Yes. At Starbucks. Right. 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. Sure. And just do away with tipping. Just go totally Japan or yeah, or we need to really make it clear who's depending on tips and who's not right. 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 and the karma karma jar or whatever. Yeah, that's kind of that's passive aggressive guilty. Yeah, you think? Yeah. All right. So that was our intro. Yeah. Tipping. So let's talk about where this often vile exploited act came from Chuck. Go ahead. Well, I feel like I was on a rant. I was too. I'm just joking. Oh, okay. Well, let's see. Tipping they think has its origins in about the 16th century in Europe, where if you went and visited a friend or relative, a colleague, you went to their house. Yeah. 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 became much less of a way to show your appreciation as something that was expected and depended on. Right? Yeah. Once you start kind of giving money into a customary manner, people start to include that in their budgets. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So they think that that's possibly where the custom came from. Right? Yeah, I don't even think that this acronym thing is even valid at all. No, and it's not valid. There's a guy named Steve Dublonica who's written books on tipping. He's got some pretty good research down. And you want to say the acronym? TIP to insure with an I promptness. Right. But that's just, there's no way. No, because number one, acronyms didn't really come into use until the 1920s. Yeah, they weren't using acronyms in

the 16th century. And the word tip itself has been around for long before that. And like you said, it shouldn't be tip insure with an I, it should be insure with an E. Yeah. So there's a lot wrong with that. What they think is that tipping originally came from the, this kind of word among thieves, which is how we use it today. Like you tip somebody off that basically to give something, right? Right. And it was just basically common thieves slang. But then the act of tipping itself also came from either the servants from tipping servants, or it also was a 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. Yeah. And in fact, the word tip in Slavic languages translates roughly to drinking

money. I like that one. The word for tip in French is poor beer, poor boar, which means for drinking. Right. And basically everywhere else, except in English, the word tip means drinking money. Right. So that's probably where tipping came from. I like that origin here. I'm having a good time. I had a few drinks. Go buy yourself one. Exactly. It's just spreading the joy. Or I, I'm at my buddy's house and I've drank until I soiled myself. Here's some money for cleaning me up last night. I appreciate it. I don't know about the train spotting origin of tipping. Yeah. So this is a, this is probably where tipping came from. And a little more history if you don't mind, Chuck. Sure. You can pretty much pinpoint how tipping became accustomed in

the United States because it was all the rage in Europe. It was not caught on here in the U.S. 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 going to do the same thing until the Pullman Company, the Pullman Rail Car Company, figured out that they could grossly underpay their porters by publicizing that they relied on tips to survive. And basically, the Pullman Company cut almost $3 million in the, in the late 19th century. That was a lot of money from their payroll by basically relying on their customers' good hearts to take care of their porters for them. It is, when you think about it in those terms, 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 you're the one reaping all the reward of the $5 cup of coffee. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And a lot of, a lot of restaurants or a lot of people on the restaurant side of this debate say, well, if we start raising their wages to the minimum wage or even double the tip wage, we're going to 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. Right. Because the wages are so low that people just hop from job to job, wherever they can get the most tips. If you can offer a higher stable wage, you're going to have much less turnover and ultimately

in the long run, you may come out on top as a restaurant owner. It's so interesting. Possibly. That's one side. You know who pays the customer? Yeah. Us. The middle class. You pay the $5 for the cup of coffee, which the company gets. They don't have to pay, well, they do pay their employees minimum wage, but that ain't much. And then they get the little tip on top of that and you end up paying $6.50 for your cup of coffee. And you know what? Now that you're bringing this up, you and I were at Caribou and 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 buy this $15 pound of coffee and we'll send them to the troops. And we asked if they were selling

them at a discount like if the Caribou was doing anything. They were like, no, this is 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 beef up your unground bean sales. That was disgusting if you ask me. It happens. That's gross. That board meeting is the gross part where that's decided. Yeah. You know where we can really racket. Right. All right. I knew this would be a lightning rod. This is just us, man. Imagine the emails we're going to get. Oh boy. Well, since you brought it up, it is a lightning rod period. 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 they under tip and then people that say it is out of control. Yeah. Every, you know, you go on a vacation, stay in a hotel and eat at restaurants. You're Jimmy Conway. I, but again, like I was reading this, 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 carry cash. It's all plastic. So surely plastic leading it to a decline in tipping. I did a search for that. No, no. All I could find was that most people carry plastic and a little bit of currency for tips. I'm like, oh man, I really have to get on the ball here. All right. They've actually done a lot of studying about tips.

Yeah. Why do we do this? What's the psychology of tipping as it were? Well, one is out of guilt. Yeah. Wasn't that one of the reasons? Well, yeah, not, supposedly, if you think about tipping, the whole idea is that you're doing it out of gratitude. Like you did a really good job. And I want to make sure that you have this extra little, go buy yourself something nice on me. Or I want to ensure because I come back to you that I will get that same service when I come back. Right. So really it's 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 they're depending on through tips or you're afraid that they're going

to pee in your soup. And you're basically saying, here's some money. Please don't pee in my soup. Right. And they say, all right, that's going to do it. That takes care of the no pee soup levy. Yeah. But the tip comes after the soup. Yeah. But you may be back there again. Okay. Right. Yes. The Center for Hospitality at Cornell University. They've done some research there. And I thought this was fairly interesting. They found the US leads the world in being neurotic and being extroverted. And those are two traits that lead to big tips. Yep. Because you're neurotic. So you feel like, of 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, portrayed. You want to tip as much as your friend. You don't want to under tip. You want to tip just, you don't want to over tip. You want to tip just the right amount. I don't mind over tipping, especially when it's like really good service. Like I'm happy to over tip. And I prefer to err on the side of over tipping. Right. For sure. Extraverts are outgoing, social folks, and they see it as an incentive to get a little extra attention. Like make a big show about me. Right. Party of Benjamin, Party of Four, Benjamin Franklin, Party of Four. I've never heard that. Yeah. Yumi's got a story about this one, dude. Wow. You want to 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 the guy actually said Franklin, Party of Four. And she said it worked. She couldn't believe it. She was like, I felt bad about the guy we were with and the guy who took the money. But she said it was good. Interesting. Good meal. I've never greased a palm for like a table. I haven't either. I bet 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 give up a lot of any claim to the 99%. Even if you don't make that much money, if you're walking around doing stuff like that, you know. Speaking of, did you see the internet meme going around about the 99% tipper? Yes, which apparently is totally unfounded.

No, I think it's sort of unfounded. I thought he was a 1% tipper. He's a 1% tipper because he is part of the 1%. And from what I understood was the tip was real, but what he wrote on there was fabricated. Or that they didn't even know for sure he was a banker. Then the whole thing is fabricated. Yeah. I did see that though, by the way. I mean, this is breaking news as like yesterday. Four weeks ago. So can we go back to some of the interesting studies about how you get good tips? This is Josh and Chuck's. If you're a waiter or a waitron, here are our tips for you to increase your tips in your restaurant. This isn't just us and our observations. No, no, no. Again, Cornell's put a lot of thought and energy into it, I believe.

Yeah, 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 your customer, you will increase your tip. And it's not just lonely, horny men. Men and women of all ages will increase their tip with just a brief touch on the shoulder. Yeah, from 11.8% to 14.8%. I, however, do not like to be touched. I don't either. I'm glad you said that. I had a waiter touch me the other day and I was just like, eh. Like, what are you doing? It didn't freak me out. Like, it's not something I make a big deal of. I don't know you. You don't know me. Yeah. Let's just 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. Oh, God, dude. You had that power in your hands. I have so much former waiter guilt. I tip 20% on bad service as long as I do. As long as you have the right attitude, that makes the biggest difference. If you're like, really sorry and it was bad service and you said, I'm sorry guys. 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. I can't do. Yeah. Intentions go a long way with me. All right. Squatting. And this was my big move when I was a waiter. Because you're a squatter. 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 14.9% to 17.5. Okay. I would also like to 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 used to do that at Mexicali though, but that was a college atmosphere and that would be acceptable at certain times. Even in college at Mexicali. No, no, no. That was over the line. No, no, no. It was fun. I remember drinking margaritas. I would sit down and flirt and would your tip go up. Yeah. And occasionally I would get a phone number out of it. Oh, and free margarita. Well, I worked there. I got all the free margaritas I wanted. I didn't realize they gave free margaritas to employees in Mexicali. Well, they didn't officially.

Oh, God. You weren't supposed to have them while you were working either. Those were the old days. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty.

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their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Giving candy to your customer will jump your tip up from 15.1 to 17.8, giving two pieces of candy, one initially and one spontaneously. Like, here have another. Jumped it from 19% to 21.6%. So long as you didn't end it with chumps. No, I'm sorry. That jumped it to 23% when it was the spontaneous second piece. Right. Right. Chumps. 23% by being like, oh, well, you know what, here, take two. And we're talking like the Starlight Peppermint's here, okay? There's not like a good dive of chocolate. Exactly. Yes. Thank you for rescuing me because I almost said Snickers.

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 pin guy. So is Emily. And as far as having like the perfect pin, and I signed things like, Oh my God, I feel this pen. And it was a combination of the pen on that slimy paper that they give you. And it was amazing. And Emily said something and she was like, I agree. I keep them in my car. I love them so much. Go ahead and keep that one. And how much of a tip did you leave her? I'd left her my pen. No, I'm kidding. Oh, yeah, sure. I tipped her more 50%. No, 70. No, it's always like 20, 25. So the highest you go is 25. Yeah. I mean, I go I go 20 and I round up no matter what I noticed, especially before the

well, no, I guess it would have been even after the economic collapse, the global catastrophe that were in the midst of still that it was moving very clearly toward 20% across the board. Sure. 20% was the new 15%. Right. And then the economic meltdown happened. And all of a sudden now it's back to 15% and 20% if you're doing good. Oh, really? It seems like. Yeah. Am I wrong? Am I just fantasizing here? No, I think it used to be 10 and it was like 12 and 15 and then 20. And then yeah, you're right with the economic crisis. I did read articles that people said our tips are going down, but it's a collective movement. You know, I'm saying like you can be the nice guy in tip 20 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 what does that mean? I've got like eight different. I don't want to call out any, any person or even are you talking about 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 in, it's like, Oh, I got to use a bathroom. I'm going to put more money in there. Oh, you're an underminer, huh? Yeah, because certain people, I, 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 10% tip and so always knew to bring cash to leave in the thing. Jared Hesse's dad? No. No. All right, so that's it. How to increase your tips. Oh, tell them it's sunny outside. Yeah, the psychology of weather strikes again, where the study was conducted where if a, in a windowless room, right? Yeah. If the waiter described it as being rainy out, the tips were something like 19%, it wasn't too bad. Yeah. But if the waiter was like, Oh, it's so sunny and beautiful out, then tips averaged 24%. So squat at the table, touch them on the shoulder. Give them candy. Give them candy. And then all of a sudden you've got two pieces of candy and give good service and then

tell them it's sunny outside and you will be rolling in the dead. It would make like a million dollars a table. Thank you, Slater. And tip on the original amount, by the way, that's a waiter thing. It's a big one. If you've got coupons or you do the scout mob thing, be aware that 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 deals are getting these things. Sure. You know. But Chuck, on the other hand, you can make a pretty strong argument that if you order $100 bottle of wine, I mean, yeah, you tip 20% on that. Yeah. So why? Why? Yeah. Why?

I like some nice wine and that is a bone of contention that I swallow and I just still tip on the total amount. Do you? Okay. But yeah, you're right. If you let's say you just order a bottle of wine, like me and Emily, we're just going to go have a bottle of wine one night because we ate dinner somewhere else or maybe we got to have dessert somewhere. Okay. Sure. And we get a nice bottle of port. Okay. And it's like 80 bucks. You guys drink a whole bottle of port? Well, no, of course not. Let's say we're the group or whatever. We drink a whole bottle of port. A group of what? Like 20? You're drinking a whole bottle? You drink a glass of port and there's like five glasses in a bottle. A glass of port is like

that small. No, it's like a regular wine glass. What? Do you drink brandy like that? No, because that's liquor. Port is wine. No, brandy is a type of wine. Okay. Anyway, do you really like Homer Simpson when he was babysitting Mr. Burns 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, what are you trying to do to me? That's awesome. No, but port's not, you're not supposed to have a little, it's not like Sambuca. I mean, port's like a regular guy's wine, right?

I'm mistaken then because every place I go, they pour you a regular, regular glass. No, 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 going to be wrong. Regardless, you drink expensive wine and how much do you tip? Well, the 20% but it does cross my mind like, oh man, I'm giving this guy like $14 for bringing me a bottle of wine. It's a good point. And I think even the average server would grudgingly agree. Okay, all right, maybe, maybe not 15% 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 to tip a lot of people. Yeah, the person who seats you maybe if it's at a really nice place.

The matriodine, if the matriodine goes out of his way to get you a very nice table or you feel like he or she is doing something very just kind of above and beyond, you might want to slip from 15 to 20 bucks. There's a lot. Also, if the sommelier comes over to your 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 sommelier in my life. And now I understand why he's looking at me weird when he finished. Yeah. You want to give them anywhere from 10 to 20 bucks depending on how in depth the recommendation is. And usually when you're talking tips, at least in this article that we're working from, from howstuffworks.com, there's a high and a low. Yeah.

And it's basically that the discrepancy is based on just how much effort this person's putting into it, how much enthusiasm. Sure. But in just how much out of their, out of the way of their normal duties are they going? See, here's my deal, dude. I don't want a big show. I want genuine good service and to be left alone. Because 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 still going to get the same amount of money. You know what, Chuck? You know where you would do well then? Where? Buffets. At a buffet, you serve yourself and you just leave your plate and it

mysteriously vanishes. Yeah. But that's a person behind the kidnapping of that plate and you want to leave them about 10% as the recommendation. So you want to leave them 35 cents at your buffet. I don't go to buffets, but yeah. You don't go to buffets? 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. Yeah. And cafeterias like, here's a little ramekin of the same thing you can have 10 helpings of if you want for the same price. Well, you don't see a lot of cafeterias anymore. You do. You do? Yeah. 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 buffet? Okay, all right. So those, they exist outside of this realm. I'm talking more like country cooking buffets. Yeah. Yeah. There's almost one for one. All right. And by the way, most nicer restaurants pull their tips. Like in Mexicali, it was every man for himself. You know, the busboy didn't get tips. Actually, we kind of bust our own tables. Yeah. But most restaurants will pull their tips and the, that's usually not a matriot D at that point. It's just the host or hostess. They'll get a cut and like bartender the bartender and the busboy that they'll get dishwasher dishwasher. Yeah, they'll all get a cut. So just remember that. But some places it's every man for himself too.

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. Unless it's a very if it's like a complex, complicated drink. Yeah. Which I tend to prefer. Sure. It will be like a percentage of the bill. If there's any 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 I will usually just say, give us six PBRs for my friends and I and I'll tip a bucket. Even if the beer is a dollar, I'll give a dollar. This is very nice of you. You know, because it's like, what am I going to like fish around for 15 cents? That's just ridiculous. Yeah. But you know, we're rich. We're high rollers. You're tipping a buck, a buck for a dollar

beer, Chuck. Yeah. Wow. The podcasting business. Cafes and coffee houses. I think we've kind of covered that. We did. 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 know 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 50-50 for me depending on my mood. Really? Yeah. I mean, like I should do it every time, but yeah. And that's sad that helping out kids with muscular dystrophy is equated to tipping. Well, it's not. But yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah. Holiday tipping, which was a big part of that curvy 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 them. Yeah, like the guy at the country club and the guy, you know, this and that. But you can deliver your newspaper or your garbage collector, your newspaper delivery person. You can tip your mailman. My brother used to, when he worked at the movie theaters would give every holiday, he would give out movie tickets. That is stole from work. Yeah. It's like the mailman into the garbage person and stuff like that. 15 to 25 bucks, they say for your garbage collector, your dog walker, your nanny, your cleaning service. They say one week's pay. I save a lot of money

every year by not having those people. So I have to tip them. Uh, yeah. Manicurist. You have manicurist. You're supposed to tip them 10 to $50. 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 feel like you need to tip them at the holidays. Hair dressers, women, obviously the ones who were probably spending the big bucks at the hairdresser, they say 25 to 100. 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 $14 haircut. I tip six bucks. What? Well, because what am I going to give them $19? Wow. Or $2. Okay. That just seems really cheap to me to say. Like,

thanks for the great haircut that's going to last me three months. Here's eight quarters. I tip my haircut lady all over the place. What do you tip her? I kisses and hugs and stuff like that. You mean cut your hair? Yeah. 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. One to $10 per night. Uh, 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 hops, 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 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, what's the big show? I don't want a big show. Right. Well, apparently though, remember that one study found that bell hops who do make a big show of things by showing people how to, how to operate the thermostat and the TV and opening the drapes and offering to fill the ice bucket. They almost doubled their average tip. But I wonder if it was

people who were like, here's some money. Just please go away. Which is one of the origins of tipping too. Remember throwing money for, right? Passage, uh, concierge five to $10. Depending on how helpful remember when we were at the Pittsburgh Fairmont and our buddy Chad gave the concierge like 10 bucks for a wreck and it turned out to be a bad recommendation and he was all 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 time. It was for a restaurant that was either closed or it was like, it was just a bad tip. Oh, really? And he was like, did he get his money back? No, of course not.

I'll bet he did not stop complaining about it. I'll bet he kept going and going. Uh, and I didn't know until recently you're supposed to tip the concierge. Yeah. I'm a dummy. I didn't know that. Well, I mean, they, they help you out and depending on how much help they are. Yeah. I mean, like they, they, uh, concierge, and I've never had one do this for me. I've never really needed the services of concierge, but concierge can like really go to town on making your life easy. Oh, they can make your reservation. 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. Yeah.

Shopping, that kind of thing. Or at the very least they can find your shopper. Uh, this is, you 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 by toy. Yeah. 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. They don't be surprised if they get in the back. Really? Yep. All right. Delivery. This is a big one for me. I get Chinese food delivery. It's about the only delivery I get. Oh yeah? Maybe the occasional pizza. Where do you order from? I order from a place indicator, a Chinese food place. Is it good? Yeah, it's good, but they take forever.

Oh yeah? Yeah. See, that'll cut down on a tip with me. Well, especially if I'm really hungry when I order. Yeah. We've learned to order before we're hungry from this place. That'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. The amount of danger, depending on the neighborhood you live in. Yeah. My neighborhood's dangerous. I was not talking about your neighborhood. It's really not that bad. Um, flower deliveries, one to 10 bucks, depending on the arrangement. I spent a little time as a flower delivery person and I can tell you that most people don't tip their flower delivery guide, 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 just start pouring out. Yeah. Furniture delivery, like large things. I can tell you I did that as well. Very large furniture among the heaviest armoires you can possibly conceive of or fabricate. And no one tipped you. If you delivered to the home of like someone age 65 or older, there was about a 60% 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 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. Yeah. Restaurant. Because tipping, I think,

and it used to be a lot more ubiquitous than it is now. Right. So yeah. So like furniture delivery, like that's why the older generation, I would get a tip from them more frequently because there was a time when you tipped everybody like that. Okay. Our generation wasn't raised like that. Right. I mean, do you tip the furniture delivery guy? I pick up my own furniture, buddy. Okay. But you probably wouldn't tip the furniture. But like the mover, let's say, like the people who help you move. Yeah. I think it's expected you pay the big huge moving cost. Exactly. And you tip the guys on top of that. Oh, man, I've got a lot of self reflection. Sky cap. I tip five bucks a bag for sky cap. I must be a sucker because it says in here $2 a bag. Very good. What's next?

Shuttle drivers at the airport. I didn't know you're supposed to tip them. You're not. This is all made up. No, it's not. Cabby in New York, they make it very easy on you now. Oh, yeah. You just put in the percentage you want in the little computer and it'll add it to your credit card, which is great. Yeah. Valet, if I like you, which is frequent, you get two bucks. If I don't like you, you can get as little as $0. I try to get two. I feel bad though when I don't have it. And I'm just like, oh, man. And sometimes I'll say, can I go get my own car, dude? I don't have any cash. Yeah, I'll say that too. And they say, no, we'll go get it. And I'll fart in it.

No, they will. Oh, they will. Yeah. Yeah. I'll soil myself in your car. Mechanic. I had no idea. This is why it's made up. You don't tip your mechanic. What are they talking about? I had no idea. I think this is from like the Gentleman's Guide to Life, the 1942 edition. Tip your mechanic, $10 to $20 for any job over $500. I had no idea. Gas station attendants, like they exist anymore. Yeah, well, New Jersey. Or Oregon or wherever. If they voluntarily check your fluids, meaning the ones in your car, you should tip them one to $2. Is it Oregon? Do you have to get your gas pumped? I think it is. I remember in New Jersey, I think I've even told you this. My girlfriend had never pumped her gas. She was like 33. Oh,

yeah, you did tell me that. Yeah. Our friend Van Nostrand, he lives in Washington, which is nearby Oregon. So he probably knows about that. We should ask him. Yeah. 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 you go to visit a country, it's all different. Look it up before you go so you don't look like a schmuck. Yeah. There are a couple of rules of thumb. You should, like you said, familiarize yourself. Not knowing the value of the currency is not an excuse. Right. And don't use US currency. Yeah. That's a, here's a couple of American dollars for you, Mr. Koseregan. Don't disrupt your GDP. Yeah. That's the cop out. That's BS.

Convert it and give them their currency. Yeah. Because they have to go to an exchange place and you know, everybody has a cameo in their neighborhood. Right. Or, you know, I guess some countries, I think like, like Puerto Rico and stuff, like they can use American dollars. Like some places. Because it's an American territory. Well, no. And I think even like Jamaica and a lot of these places close to the US and the Caribbean, I think we'll, they can use American 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 there, is there anyone that you don't have to tip besides fast food? 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. Food deliveries under 30 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 ushers. You have to tip shuttle drivers, but you're not supposed to tip bus drivers. This place is crazy. That's what I'm saying. The rules are so, like you don't tip at McDonald's, but you do tip the coffee person, even though you can get a coffee at McDonald's. Sales people. You don't tip them. And employees at fast food restaurants.

Airline flight attendants. I can't believe someone actually wrote down that you don't have to tip them. So there's a lot of federal stuff going on right now, my friend. Oh yeah? There's something up. So the federal tipped minimum wage has been the same since 1991. 213. It's at 213 an hour. Because of inflation, that whole concept was created in 1966. Because of inflation, it's never been less valuable than it is right now relative to the cost of living. I believe it, yeah. So it's a big deal for people who make their living in service industries. Before Congress right now, there's HR 31. The Working for Adequate Gains for Employment and Services or the Wages Act. Congress is so clever. But basically, it would tie the federal tip minimum

wage to 60% of the federal minimum wage. So every time there's a hike, there would also be a hike in the federal tip minimum wage. And that act would raise it right now to 435 an hour, which is double what they're making, but still way below just over half of the federal minimum wage. And if you want to go join a group that lobbies on behalf of people who should make a decent wage in the service industry, you can check out faireats.org. And that, buddy, is a local group. Oh, really? They're Atlanta based. A lot of restaurants here. I have a list, Josh, of best and worst celebrity tippers. Oh, nice. Yeah, this is 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 if they're true. And I'm not going to get into the stories, but you'll be pleased to know that our Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray are legendary good tippers. Awesome. You would think. Drew Barrymore, great tipper. I could see that. Russell Crowe kind of surprised me. Drew Tipper? Apparently he's a really good tipper. I would not have guessed that. And the whole smashing your face with a phone incident was out of character for him. Wait, I thought he like got in fights all the time. I don't know. Huh. Drew Carey, good tipper. Hulk Hogan. Charlie Sheen. Yeah, I'll bet Charlie Sheen leaves more than just money as tips. Yeah. David Beckham, Johnny Depp, apparently really, really good tipper. That's awesome. And then I cross-referenced the

list of worst tippers on, because there's all sorts of sites where people where you can go as a waitron and say, so-and-so came in my restaurant last night and they did X, Y and Z. Right. So I did cross-reference some of these. Mick Jagger, The Rock, Bill Cosby was on every list. I'm 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. If it's true, David Byrne of the Talking Heads is considered one of the worst tippers ever, because apparently he does not tip. Period. It's like Steve Buscemi. Oh, yeah. I don't tip. That is two episodes in a row that

feature reservoir dogs. Michael Moore, supposedly. What? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I know. If this is true, Michael Moore, and you are a friend of Michael Moore's 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 less than $20 on a $450 bill. And see all these though, I say take with a grain of salt though, because it could just be the once. It could just not have any money. Maybe the server was a big Republican jerk that he didn't like, because it is Michael Moore. Yeah, remember that part? Did you see Capitalism, a love story? Yeah. And he's like, hey, I'm looking for some advice. And one of the traitors was like, stop making movies. Oh, really? It was awesome.

All right. So I'm not going to embarrass any more of these people, like Molly Ringwald and Ricky Lake. Yeah, I could see Ricky Lake being really worried about like 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 no socialist, but come on, 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. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war

on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement. Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet. Roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two. But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast, How to Money, can help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now, and we want to see you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions,

interviewing experts, and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week. And we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing, and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money's got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's have a 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 HowStuffWorks.com, right? That's right. That's T-I-P-P-I-N-G, which is what that's like a palindrome or something almost, isn't it? Close. Let's see. I said search bar at HowStuffWorks.com, which means it's time for listening mail. Josh, I'm going to call this one Dueling Vikings. Call it that, then. From a dude from Vikingland, he says. Okay. Hi, guys. I just finished 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 means to go. So when two parties were at odds, over an insult, a woman or property, they would go to a tiny island or the tip of a peninsula or some similar isolated area to duke it out Viking style. They would take a 3 by 3 meter square of oxide, spread it on the ground and stake each corner and rope between them, much like a modern boxing ring. Each home gunger typically wielded an axe or a heavy sword and had with them three wooden shields. The challenging party, I'm sorry, the challenged party, would have burst strike and they would then proceed taking turns to hammer away at each other's shield, broken shields

being replaced with the two spares along the way, and the first man struck bodily would typically be considered the loser. Thanks for the hundreds of hours of entertaining knowledge and keep being the awesome dudes you are. Your friend in Viking land, Yannick? Yannick for the K? Is that Minnesota? J-A-N-N-I-K? No, Minnesota. That's pretty cool. Yannick, I think it is. J-A-N-N-I-K, Yannick. We'll go with that. Okay. Thanks a lot, Yannick from Minnesota. And if you want to know about Vikings and you haven't heard it already, go listen to our How Vikings Work podcast. Oh, that was a good one. Very neat. Yeah. Talk about berserkers. Let's see. Oh, if you have a good tipping story, we want to hear it. You can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can join us on

Facebook at facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can also join us on kiva at kiva.org slash team slash stuff you should know to help us finish out the million dollar march. Right? Yeah. I mean, we are right there right now. Very close. And you can send us a good old-fashioned email at stuffpodcast at discovery.com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join House to work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Getting better with money is a great goal for 2023. But how are you going to make it happen? Ordering a book that lingers on your nightstand isn't going to do the trick. Instead, check out our podcast, How to Money. That's right. We're two best buds offering all the helpful personal finance information you need without putting you to sleep. We offer guidance three times a week and we talk about debt payoff, saving more, intelligent investing, and increasing your earnings. Millions of listeners have trusted us

to help them make progress with their financial goals. You can listen to How to Money on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.