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In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack discuss the practice of tipping in American culture.
Transcript:
00:00:01
Jack
Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I’m here with my co-host social. And today we are in the culture corner and we’re talking about tipping culture in America.
00:00:14
Jack
And social, what do you think about the tipping culture in America? I just visited America, not just like a couple months ago. It’s.
00:00:21
Xochitl
Ohh, that must have been so hard for you cause Korea hasn’t has no tipping culture.
00:00:26
Jack
I know it’s really. It hurts so much. We say this is gonna sound cringey, but we call it 00.
00:00:33
Jack
See out of control. It’s just.
00:00:37
Xochitl
That was cringy. That’s good. That was very good. But OK. The tipping culture is definitely inflated in the US, and it’s for anything like any little service being a person who worked in the service industry.
00:00:39
Jack
Yeah, yeah.
00:00:42
Jack
That was just for you. That was just for you.
00:00:58
Xochitl
Even recently I can say that I I appreciate when people would tip me even just a buck or.
00:01:03
Xochitl
Something.
00:01:04
Xochitl
But.
00:01:07
Xochitl
It should be up to the corporations to deliver a working wage to the point that we don’t have.
00:01:12
Xochitl
To depend on.
00:01:13
Xochitl
Tips. Because if you’re working in the food service or whatever, even if you’re not waiting tables, you might be making like $15.00 an hour and then the odd person might tip you a dollar for making their coffee or whatever that adds up substantially over the course of the month. And then you might make 100 or 200.
00:01:14
Jack
Red.
00:01:31
Xochitl
Extra dollars and that really helps, but at the bottom line, the company should be providing a wage where you can live off of that and $15.00 an hour doesn’t really cut it anymore with how expensive things are in the US.
00:01:46
Jack
And the companies with tipping, they’re basically letting you pay the salary of the worker instead of them. It’s like, not only are you buying the product, but you’re also paying part of their salary. How stupid is that? I mean, it it to me, tipping is just I do it because it’s a social.
00:01:53
Xochitl
Yeah.
00:01:58
발표자
Right.
00:02:05
발표자
Oh.
00:02:07
Jack
There’s a social stigma against not doing it. If I don’t tip, everybody looks at me like I’m cheap.
00:02:10
Xochitl
Yeah, you’re very.
00:02:14
Jack
I’m a cheap guy, I’m a jerk and you know.
00:02:18
Xochitl
You’re like the male, Karen or whatever.
00:02:21
Jack
A male Karen, you know, crying about tipping. But it we the fact that the the fact that the government pays those people so low because of tipping, they’re they’re allowed like the the the law in America there’s a carve out for the minimum wage for.
00:02:41
Jack
Like food workers, whereas they don’t have to pay them as much as the minimum wage because they get tips.
00:02:51
Jack
I mean, how stupid is that? That’s like the restaurant Workers of America or something like that. This, this group.
00:02:56
Xochitl
Yeah, anytime you’re a server, uh, like a waitress. Specifically, they don’t have.
00:03:01
Jack
You make like $2.00 an hour or something.
00:03:03
Xochitl
You can make like $2.00 an hour, and in fact they don’t make $2.00 an hour because that’s all taken by federal taxes or state tax federal taxes, I guess. So you end up having $0.00 on your paycheck. You’re only making tips.
00:03:18
Jack
Right.
00:03:18
Jack
And and they can make a good living. They can make a decent living off of tips, but it just doesn’t make sense. Why is why does the restaurant get to offload their the salaries of their of their servers on to you when you’re already paying for the food and you’re paying for the dessert and you’re paying for the drinks and all these things? It doesn’t.
00:03:38
Jack
Makes sense. Tip stands for TTIP to ensure promptitude.
00:03:45
Jack
Not to pay salary TPS. Yeah, this is TPS.
00:03:45
발표자
Hmm.
00:03:48
Xochitl
HTTPS.
00:03:51
발표자
I.
00:03:52
Jack
Yeah.
00:03:52
Xochitl
I have a question for you. Jack has tipping culture evolved in your lifetime? Like the percentage and stuff? Because for me, I remember when I was a little kid, I think 15% was was the norm, but now it has to be at least 20% or you’re cheap.
00:04:03
Jack
Yeah.
00:04:08
Jack
Well, here’s The thing is, if you’re paying with a credit card now they’ve got a tablet like an iPad, and it basically gives you a choice that says you can pay 20 percent, 25% or no tip.
00:04:19
Xochitl
You know that there’s there’s.
00:04:19
Jack
And sometimes.
00:04:20
Xochitl
A place at the bottom that says custom amount and you can just.
00:04:24
Jack
Ohh is there OK I didn’t. I I I don’t want to do math. I don’t wanna do math. I just want to see.
00:04:26
발표자
Yeah.
00:04:30
Xochitl
You you can.
00:04:31
Xochitl
Do like 5 when you just custom an amount. You can put the exact amount of money.
00:04:34
Xochitl
You want to give them and then.
00:04:35
Jack
Ohh. OK, OK. Well, I I usually just do the calculation of 20%. I give the lowest, you know, but 20% is still like you.
00:04:42
Xochitl
Acceptable test.
00:04:44
Jack
No, I I just, it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean anything. The person wasn’t ensuring promptitude. It was a person. But I was buying a smoothie like, that’s their job is to make a smoothie for me. And just like, you know, I I’m not sitting down at the, you know, spago Wolfgang Puck restaurant.
00:04:45
Xochitl
That’s fine.
00:05:05
Jack
And being, you know, seated by uh, you know, some fancy guy in a tuxedo. It was like a smoothie shop, you know?
00:05:11
발표자
You can check.
00:05:13
Jack
Umm, it’s it’s completely gone out of control. It’s it’s off the rails. We need to get rid of tipping. We need to pay those workers a minimum wage. That’s livable. So that it’s like Korea where you don’t tip at all, but they get a a certain wage to do their job. And we’re and we need to get rid of all of this.
00:05:13
Xochitl
Right.
00:05:31
Xochitl
Right.
00:05:34
Jack
This tipping nonsense, it’s garbage. And also, why don’t McDonald’s workers get tips they they’re serving you food.
00:05:42
Xochitl
And that.
00:05:43
Xochitl
I think you.
00:05:43
Jack
Oh, they can now. Oh.
00:05:45
Xochitl
I’m not sure.
00:05:45
Xochitl
Well, I know that pretty much every fast food chain I was working on a Panera Bread and we could get tips. So it’s it’s out of control.
00:05:51
Jack
OK, maybe there’s like, maybe there’s, like, a really sad cup there that says mic tips on it or something like that. You can throw in 1/4.
00:05:57
Xochitl
Yeah, actually I think.
00:05:59
Xochitl
You’re right. I think McDonald’s still.
00:06:00
Xochitl
Hasn’t gone that low yet, but.
00:06:03
Xochitl
Else pretty much.
00:06:04
Xochitl
You can tip. Yeah. It’s it’s weird. So the thing in in, in other countries, I’m curious, I know in South Korea you there is no tip and in Mexico there is tipping culture for certain things like going at a restaurant or something. But 10% is the expended expected tip amount.
00:06:22
Jack
OK, that seems that yeah, that would be the same as not tipping in America, it’s like 10%.
00:06:27
Xochitl
Yeah. If you shift 10%, people like spit on you, basically you cheat ogre.
00:06:30
Jack
Yeah, exactly.
00:06:34
Jack
Just you miserly old man, yeah.
00:06:35
발표자
So it’s like.
00:06:38
Xochitl
Yeah, I always usually tip 20% here in Mexico as well cause cause I feel bad.
00:06:43
Xochitl
Doing it and my parents don’t go tip like 10% and I give them dirty look because they’re they’re not even like.
00:06:51
Jack
They’ve never worked in the service sector before me, yeah.
00:06:54
Xochitl
Yeah, that’s true. That is true. Oh, I guess my mom maybe did briefly, but my dad did. Well, my dad did. But it’s been so long, and he’s like, 60 or something.
00:06:59
발표자
OK.
00:07:03
Jack
Yeah, back in his days when you gotta tip like 1/4 was like ohh boy, I got a whole quarter like.
00:07:03
Xochitl
So.
00:07:10
Xochitl
Yeah, that’s that’s true. It’s great. Yeah. And I think it’s like tip inflation. I think it used to be when I was a kid, 15% was a fine amount to tip and now 15% is like getting you dirty looks.
00:07:11
발표자
Hmm.
00:07:24
Jack
But the smoothie.
00:07:25
Xochitl
Yeah.
00:07:25
Jack
Shop never. You never tipped in the 1990s. In 2000, the smoothie shop. Now you do.
00:07:28
발표자
No, no.
00:07:30
Xochitl
2000, 2010 My childhood was mostly in 20 tens, I would say and and mid 2000s.
00:07:32
Jack
Everything, yeah.
00:07:41
Xochitl
And yeah, you you didn’t tip in a smoothie shop. You didn’t tip in a coffee shop, but tipping was for restaurants or like concierge at a hotel or what, you know what I mean? Certain like your.
00:07:49
Jack
Yeah.
00:07:54
Jack
Yeah, a bellhop at a hotel. You give them like a buck or a couple bucks or something.
00:07:58
Xochitl
Yeah, certain luxury experiences.
00:07:58
Jack
Like that, yeah.
00:08:04
Xochitl
But it wasn’t a common thing.
00:08:07
Jack
Exactly.
00:08:11
Xochitl
All right. Well, let us know what the tipping culture is like in your country. I’m very interested to know.
00:08:19
Xochitl
Shoot us an e-mail at at ozenglishpodcast@gmail.com. Leave us a comment down below at A-Z, englishpodcast.com or join our WeChat listed groups to join the conversation and we’ll see you guys next time. Bye bye.
00:08:32
Jack
Bye bye.
00:08:32
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