An aspect of U.S. culture is tipping workers after they assist you, whether it be a food service worker or uber driver, tipping is a common etiquette apart of U.S. culture. Tipping allows workers to have a reward for their service, but it isn\u2019t required. Many workers who receive tips are paid below minimum wage and their tips are intended to compensate for the amount they\u2019re getting paid and allow them to sometimes profit more than someone who works at minimum wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This aspect of U.S. culture is complex. I\u2019ve been working in the food service industry since I was sixteen, and at the time getting paid $6\/hr plus tips was enough for me to have my own spending money as a highschooler. Now at 19 I\u2019m making $9\/hr plus tips and it can be challenging to get by and afford to pay my bills while attending college. Even though tipping is apart of U.S. culture, not every customer abides by it. Every shift I work there\u2019s several customers who don\u2019t tip on checks, even if their service is excellent, they don\u2019t feel the need to or aren\u2019t able to. In my opinion if you have enough money to eat out, who have enough to leave a tip for the service worker whose providing for you and taking care of you for an incredibly low wage. Even if everyone tips you, getting paid such a low wage can be a challenge, especially with all the other factors that go into the restaurant business that contribute to the number of tips you make. You have to depend on the restaurant you\u2019re working in to receive a decent amount of business so you\u2019re able to make tips from customers, but if the restaurant doesn\u2019t suffice you most likely have to look for a new job, which can add more stress and a bigger challenge for a person whose just trying to make enough money to get by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone outside of U.S. culture could view this cultural aspect as strange since in other countries tipping culture doesn\u2019t exist to the extend it does here since workers are being paid above minimum wage. In other countries restaurant workers are often paid enough to where customers don\u2019t need to tip anything or there is an automatic gratuity added to checks. In Australia tipping isn\u2019t apart of their culture, but I know I\u2019m going to feel extremely bad and awkward signing a check and leaving no tip when I go out to restaurants, but thankfully this is something I learned about Australian culture before arriving and can be prepared for this new adjustment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This exercise helped me prepare for my time abroad by helping me consider the many cultural differences I\u2019ll face during my time abroad. This exercise also helped me acknowledge how I need to be aware of everyday things I may find normal in the U.S. may not be considered normal in Australia and that I should be aware of my surroundings to see those differences and respect them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An aspect of U.S. culture is tipping workers after they assist you, whether it be a food service worker or uber driver, tipping is a common etiquette apart of U.S. culture. Tipping allows workers to have a reward for their service, but it isn\u2019t required. Many workers who receive tips are paid below minimum wage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-22761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22762,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22761\/revisions\/22762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}