world scholar > living

After a long flight, you find your black soft-sided designer suitcase in baggage claim, when a sunny man in a spiffy coat, tie and captain’s hat kindly offers to help you to the awaiting cab. By the time you settle into the back seat and wave goodbye, he slams the door and sneers through the window, shaking his head with disdain.

You pull away, wondering if maybe you smell a bit ripe after spending on the airplane.

But the cab driver is charming and helpful, even waiting a few moments to start the meter as you pull away. At your destination you get out, and is about to close the door when the


	Bartenders Tip 20% of the bill to ensure prompt service. Waiters Again, 20% of the bill. Valets $3-$5. Hotel Room Service 15% of the bill. Food Delivery People $3 for bills up to $15, $5 for over. Taxi Drivers 10% - 20% for a smooth ride. Hair Stylists/Barbers It’s a good idea to tip anyone holding sharp objects near your face. If you like the cut, 20%. • Folks you should tip even though it’s not mandatory: Café/Deli Counter Workers Check for a tip jar and act accordingly – 25 cents to $1 will suffice. • Don’t worry about tipping these people: Laundry Service Supermarket Workers Many grocery store chains forbid it. If they help you out to your car with a big load, in which case $1 - $2 is considered kind. Postal Service Police Officers Unless your tip is information about a crime, any money offered would be considered a bribe, which is highly illegal.

drivers asks: “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

You scour the back seat, thinking you’d left your passport or purse. After an awkward moment when you realize he’s thoroughly disgusted with you, he screeches away from the curb.

You’re probably lucky he didn’t spit on your shoes.

Thoroughly confused, you stumble into a bar and order a drink. When it’s time for another, the bartender is chatting on her cell phone, completely ignoring you. Even worse — she’s doing it on purpose.

What happened? Are Americans completely schizophrenic? Yes, and in each case you also forgot to give a gratuity, known here in the States as a “tip.”

First, what a tip is not; it’s not an age-old acronym for “To Insure Promptitude,” written on a note wrapped around a coin in 17th Century English pubs, according to Michael Lynn. He’s the associate professor at the Cornell Hotel School who’s written over 20 dissertations on the obscure ritual of American tipping.

“I’ve seen letters from a trade guildsman to one of his customers asking for a tip for his apprentice dated 1490, so tipping goes back at least that far,” Lynn says.

Whatever the history, many nations have some form of tipping. But are there qualities that tipping nations share? And why do some cultures tip more than others?

“Countries with high extroversion and high neuroticism generally tip the most,” Lynn says.

That may partly explain why, in 2004, $26 billion were given out as tips in America.

Think it’s free money? It’s not — the US government considers tips taxable income and can garnish wages or impose a fine on a business if tips aren’t properly declared.

Also, most people working in the service sector often make at, or sometimes — in the case of waiters — below the minimum wage and aren’t given medical or dental insurance by their employer or the government. Sure, they’re ultimately about rewarding good service, but it’s good to keep in mind that your tip keeps them above the poverty line.

The problem is: there are so many people who you’re supposed to tip it’s hard to keep straight whom and how much. You may tip the waiter at the restaurant 20%, but what about the person behind the counter at the café?

Check out tipping.org, a site devoted to everything you ever wanted to know about tipping. There you’ll find all kinds of helpful tools, including an online tipping calculator that will spit out percentages on your total, a wallet-sized “Tip Rating Card” and “The Tipper,” a program you can download from Denton Software to your Palm Pilot for quick calculations.