Hi I'm Joel and I'm Lia and today's video is all about tipping culture in the UK
in comparison to tipping culture in the US. I have just answered a comment on
this on the way here this morning okay someone was like "do not tip in the UK
that's rude" or something ridiculous like that, was that on Instagram? no it was on
YouTube so funnily enough today we're doing a video about it okay where do I
begin I can begin with personal experience yeah so going out for dinners
with boyfriends or friends I talk about it as if I've had loads of boyfriends, no I've had two in my life and
what I can say is that often people all kind of have the same attitude to
tipping. Is the tip included? If it is, not gonna leave any more, maybe a couple
of quid yeah but usually not. Yeah I'd say paying 10% is generous and that's
kind of the guideline that you have but the reason it's not as big a thing here
as it is in the US is because waiters here in the UK get paid more than
waiters in the US so their salary here 'salary', their wages are that's their
living they can make a living off of their wages yes so tipping is just a
bonus whereas I know in the US they rely on tips for their income yeah and
also I did have a boyfriend once who said I feel like tipping is a way
of sort of going like "I know your jobs pretty shit" so like I kind of agree with
that I kind of it's like going like yeah "your job is shit so here's some more money". It's like putting
yourself on another level like a pedestal being like here's some money
because I know you need it, yeah I don't like it I don't like what it says I
think if you've had excellent service then yeah why not tip if you can afford
to tip and the service has been great and they've gone above and beyond then
yeah tip but if they're just doing what they do and they're getting paid to do that
and they've chosen that then just pay the bill as it comes they already put
like 12.5 percent on top in London yeah and so I pay the tip that they've
put on the bill and often I say "oh is this tip going to you or is it just
going to the to the restaurant to the company?" and they say oh it just goes into
a big pot and then it gets divvied up, and I say okay cool yeah I know my parents
sometimes ask that same question and they if they say oh it sort of goes to
the company and then they dish it out my parents will ask to get the tip taken
off because it is always optional you'll notice on the receipt it says an
optional tip has been added of 12.5% so then my parents will tip them directly
But I don't tip very often like if I've gone out for a meal and I've had multiple
courses then I might but if I've gone for a coffee or just some breakfast like
very rarely will I ever tip. I heard when my brother was working out in
Portland Oregon he said I couldn't really go for like coffees and stuff
without the expectation of the tip and stuff so by the time we had a coffee and
a little snack it's probably gonna be over $10 yeah just to sit there and have
the coffee yeah which is mental yeah that's absolutely mental definitely and
it's up to the restaurants they should be paying a good wage in my opinion they
should be paying a good-enough wage so that we shouldn't have to tip yeah
it shouldn't be this expected thing where customers are
expected to give more money than actually they have to yeah it's just a
weird system I think also just totally depends on like your situation
financially yeah and whether it's something you can do without feeling the
burn because I would love, don't you have like fantasies would you like I'd love
just to be able to get out a £50 note, like "there you go". we would go on family
holidays when we were younger and I remember holidays where my dad would
know that he had to be out and about from the hotel like all day at the bank
doing this doing meetings and stuff like that and he would tip like people that
worked in that hotel really generous amounts before to say like please look
after my kids because I'm gonna be out and about all day and me and my brother
would always wonder like why we'd come down for breakfast and it'd be so late
it would be like midday and they'd be like anything you want Nutella pancakes
and it turns out that like dad had tipped
all of them before, to make sure you get a good experience, rather than tipping them after. Dad's always
like "no no you tip before so you get good" I'm just like yeah but then they
expect it at the end and he's like yeah and then
if they've done a good job you tip them at the end as well I was like it's okay
for you coz you've got the money to do that like I can't yeah yeah and that's where me not
tipping comes from I think it's just because I'm like I literally can't
afford to pay any more than I have to yeah if the coffee is £3.80 like I'm not
gonna tip you as well yeah and I read a story in Amy Schumer's book and she was
talking about how she was in a theatre I can't remember if she was in a London
theatre or a theatre out in LA or somewhere in New York rather and she
tipped a bar person, a bartender, she tipped a bartender about hundred dollars
and it ended up making news like the next day and she was thinking why
surely loads of celebrities like tip bartenders in the theatre and I think
she said to them like oh I I used to do this kind of job so like yeah $100 it
was nothing to her and she couldn't believe in her book that that had made
the news yeah it's crazy isn't it why should that be a big deal like yeah I
think the idea of celebrity tipping is quite exciting, yeah definitely well I used
to work in a theatre and celebrities I know the people that worked on the bar
would often get tipped like Ian McKellen tipped one of my colleagues as well yeah
quite generous amount I think I got tipped nicely by an American that was
nice but not a celebrity. Tell them what happened that was so funny! so basically I used to work in the evenings
in the theatre as an usher but I also used to work in the daytime in the foyer
with the box office just like being there as security or just manning it
making sure no one's going into the building it's just the box office that's
open and anyway this American man came and asked me for directions and I was
helping him where to go and then he was like can I use your toilet and we're
supposed to be like no you can't the buildings closed but because I had been
speaking to him and he was really nice I was like yeah go on then you're not
supposed to but it's just down the stairs so he went to the toilet and then he
came back up and then shook my hand which hopefully he washed his hands
first and there was a £20 note in there which is very generous like if I
was gonna be tipped I would say like a few quid but that was £20 note and
then I went- did the classic British thing going "no no no it's fine" and he walked off and was
like no no no and then walked out the building and I was like oh my god
It literally made my day so it is nice isn't it Americans are a lot more
generous because of their culture of tipping I don't know if I want to tell
this story I think I might have told it to you I was doing a flyering job and I
was flyering for a club I'm not proud of what the club stand for but basically it
was a club for men for men, it was like a gentlemen's club so it's like
an after-hours thing and I did not work there, but I was just for handing out
flyers for cash it was like you know ten pounds an hour just to hand out these
flyers and a guy came who I was flyering was like oh god sorry you just really
remind me of my daughter and this is just heartbreaking that you're handing
out flyers like for a strip club basically and then he just gave me a
£50 note that was my first shift flyering for this awful strip club in
London yeah and and it was so tacky it was really disgusting and I had to
lie about my age to get the job like I met them and I was like I just need some
I just need some cash in hand work I just need some money yeah and they were
yeah they were just paying us in cash to go out and flyer and some gentleman
was like no I'm not having you do this you remind me of my daughter and I was like thanks.
So from then on you're like do I remind you of anyone?? do I remind you of anyone? yeah but
tipping in restaurants and stuff is rare here I don't know how many
people really do it in our age, in our age bracket I don't think, my parents do
like every time they got my mum's always like making sure that they're tipping and my
dad's like Debbie stop giving away so much money but our age group I don't
think we tip as much no like maybe if the bills like 26 that they'll leave 30
or like 28 you leave it you don't really sort of take the coins no but if they
bring back like notes yeah take it, or now because of contactless
because of using debit cards everywhere you just end up saying oh can you put 10
pounds on this one ten pounds on this one or if it's an awkward amount you're like if
my amount is can you put £8.25 I'll just be like put £9 on here yeah
definitely and you just forget about the rest. Can I just say the most awkward thing is
when they've got the machine there and it says do you want to add gratuity and
you've got - in front of them - to click yes or no and I'm like 'no' and then do my card thing and
it's just so awkward doing it in front of them like do you want to add ... how do you say that word?
gratuity gratuity that's great they always yeah it could just say do you
want a tip yeah but it says gratuity! yeah so if you're coming to the UK don't get too obsessed
with "do I need to tip or do I not need to tip" because ultimately we don't take it
that seriously here in the UK, no one's expecting it that much, I know in America it's a much bigger thing when we go to America
like we're very sure that we can a tip you know 15-20% or more just
cause we don't offend them because that's that culture but here in the UK
no one is gonna say anything or be offended if you don't tip them in a
restaurant because they get paid enough anyway to begin with yeah absolutely, completely agree
and there are other cultures as well where tipping is absolutely not
encouraged Japanese culture they say if you go into any like proper Japanese
restaurant in London, they're like no tips whatsoever we'll just give them to
charity or something it can be quite offensive it's
offensive this is the price of the food this is how much it is yeah pay that
amount no more no less yeah I love that, takes away all the pressure you're just like
great can't you just price the food at what it's supposed to be then or pay
your staff what they what they are deserved yeah that's what I mean it
should be the company's responsibility not the customers exactly, if we ruled the
country or the world it'd be so much better than it is! We hope you've enjoyed this
video we hope it's been helpful in some way we
hope you don't think we're all stingy Brits
because we're really not you know if it was part of the culture of course we'd
all do it because we'd all comply yeah but it's just not so
yeah let us know in the comments what tippings like where you're from yeah and
don't forget to follow us on our social media we are @joelandlia on every
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over there ok guys see you next time see you soon, bye