Hello, I'm Gabby Dunn and this is Bad With Money, a show about finances and feelings

that we don't talk down to you. This week we are doing an episode that I've wanted to do for so long.

It's about tipping the tips economy, people who work mostly for tips. We have been long overdue for this episode.

And it gave me a lot to think about. In the episode I talked to Barbara Sloan, who is the author of TIPT, a book that is for service and

workers, strippers, restaurant professionals, all kinds of people that traditional financial advice is not made for 3 million people in the United States work mainly for tips.

And those are the ones who have reported themselves as working mainly for tips. And yet I haven't really seen any media geared towards them.

So I am absolutely going to be getting this book for people in my life. But tipping itself is a pretty controversial topic.

There are a lot of opinions on when you should tip, how much you should tip, whether tipping should exist. It seems to be obviously people always say,

oh, but people don't tip in Europe. And it's like we should just pay everyone a living wage. And yeah, of course, for sure. In fact, I'll tell you a controversy that occurred before this episode even came out.

I mentioned that we might be doing a tipping episode. And I received some DMs that I do want to acknowledge about neurodivergence and tipping.

And it was from an account that's called Asia to dot coach someone else sent me the account. And basically it was somebody asking if I would please include the neurodivergent autistic and ADHD perspective on the stress of tipping.

And also, of course, in this episode, we absolutely get into the background of why tipping is super problematic of how it goes back to colonialism.

It was not an accident that there's a lot of low pay in the service industry because it definitely has a lot to do with black and brown folks.

And the histories of anti-blackness and capitalism, which is what this person who messaged me wanted me to address. And I do think that that is super important of me to address.

I don't want to say their name on the show, just in case they didn't want me to. But if they do want me to, please write it in and I'll say who you were.

But yes, basically they wanted to alert me to this account, Asia to coach and this person's work on talking about how requiring tips and not paying a living wage is very exploitative.

One thing that did also stick out for me in this critique that this person said is that it said disabled and or poor people that rely on delivery services shouldn't be manipulated into or required to spend more to get our basic needs met.

And I hear that. And I think this is definitely something that is very cross-sectional.

You'll hear in this interview that Barbara and I are extremely pro tipping and I did want to throw in before we get into that a little bit of a different perspective.

I'm curious to know what you all think about it. I think everybody probably has a ton of different opinions. I had not considered the no divergent aspect of it and I had not considered the disability aspect.

So a pretty tangled web of capitalist bullshit. And yeah, so I just wanted to make sure that everybody felt heard and that different voices were getting spoken to on this platform because I know that I feel a responsibility to make sure that this is a bit of a more well-rounded show than maybe another finance show.

And I think that Barbara is incredible. My own opinion, I agree entirely with her on tipping and I hope that this is an episode that provides practical, crucial advice for people who work in an industry where they are mostly paid in tips.

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