Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder and the topic today is America. We need to talk about tipping. The reason is I've just had an absolutely delicious meal at Cafe South in Knoxville, Tennessee. It's a really nice independent restaurant. I had

fried green tomatoes followed by meatloaf. I enjoyed a pint of local IPA. That's an American

pint, so actually only 16 fluid ounces rather than 20 but still very good and I even had a

small glass of California and Cabinet Sauvignon so I ate and drank very well and then I came to pay the

bill I'm already accustomed to the fact that Americans do not quote prices without tax.

Strikes me as completely mad, but that's what they do.

They seem very, very willing to tolerate all kinds of optional extras or non-optional extras in the case of tax. So you kind of already figure,

right, um, $50 bill, a $50 check. That's going to be, you know, 53 or something. Then the

hard work begins because you've then got to work out the tip.

America does things differently from everywhere else in the world and in particular, while they've got very good minimum wage legislation

which varies from one state to another,

unfortunately, waiting staff are exempt and so therefore you are expected to tip them and if you do not tip them

you are actually saying i demand a discount to the prices on your menu so unless the service is

really terrible you have to leave a substantial tip.

So how much is substantial?

It used to be 15% was absolutely fine.

That was the going rate.

But then it became 18%.

I don't know how or when or why.

And now, well, the Cafe South handed me the bill

and then they said,

if you want to leave a tip, brackets you do,

...