1356: Tipflation | Skeptical Sunday

24:00So you didn't feel pressure to tip them. And hotels would advertise, hey, we have these server doors. So when people bring you food to your room or services or bring you your suit pressed or whatever it is that they do at the hotel, they'll put it through this interior door and then you'll take it into the room and you'll never actually have to see them so you don't feel pressure to tip. This was a selling point at hotels. So in order to not replicate the social hierarchy of Europe, hotels made it so their customers didn't even have to see or interact with the servants at all. And that sounds a little bit like a lord.

24:31Come on, man. That's crazy. Yeah. Look, people were seriously anti-tipping. In 1908, William Howard Taft literally made it part of his campaign. He would brag. This was one of his talking points on the campaign trail that I don't tip my barber. Wow. So that was his bows. That's also cringy. Yeah. American history is full of cringe. But yeah, this was Taft's way of saying he was putting his foot down on tipping culture and he was echoing something a lot of people were feeling. In the last election, both candidates literally ran on no tax on tips. So back in 1908, Taft was running on just no tips.

25:08That's my how times have changed. Yeah. Look, back then, people saw it as a shakedown. They complained that everywhere you went, you had to pay for things twice. Once for the food, and then for the service. In fact, in 1916, a popular book called The Itching Palm captured that sentiment. It was essentially one long diatribe against tipping. Not going to lie, that is a pretty cool title for a book about tipping. The Itching Palm. Yeah, sounds like an Agatha Christie novel to me, The Itching Palm. But in reality, the author was a guy by the name of William R. Scott, and he argued that tipping wasn't optional, but coerced.

25:43People felt social pressure to always tip, whether the service was good or not. Yeah, he's kind of got a point there. Yeah, again, he said the same thing. He said it debases workers, forcing them into subservient flattery rather than just being professional. It sounds like what Ralph Waldo Emerson was saying. I just, I can't say I disagree with that at all. I just, I really agree with all of this centuries-old criticism on tipping. Yeah, look, I've been both. I've been the waiter begging. It did feel like begging for something from the customer of my employer. Like that was it felt that was the trade off.

26:21You can come in and beg my customers for money. And so I've been that. But I've also been the customer. And so I will put in a little one defense of the system that a good server can make your day and a bad server can wreck it. And it is nice to know that if you go to a restaurant very often, it's a place where they treat you really nice. Again, if you've never been there before or you've been there and you left an OK tip, they're going to treat you nice. And that very often can make your day. It's nice to go to a restaurant. So I will say that. So did you think that you ever made someone's day when you waited tables?

26:56I did. Sure. But I was in the game for 15 years. And over a bunch of years, I had a few off days. is there still a Yelp review or two about me floating around out there? I remember one said, I'd probably really dig this guy's vintage record collection, but I hope I never get him as a waiter again. Oh my God. And the one that really got me and sticks with me, it didn't even really criticize my service, but it referred to me as Kato Kaelin. Yeah. You got to learn, you know, the old shoulder touch and squat next to the table thing. And now some servers do that and you're just like, oh, we're on the same level now.

27:31That is interesting you should say that because we're going to get into why they do that. Okay, cool. But as far as me as a waiter, I tried to be the smiliest version of myself. And I will admit it did suck being a cheesier version of yourself than you really are. Crazy that when you waited tables, you were even cheesier than you are on this show. I can't wrap my head around that. Yeah, I walked right into that. Okay, fine. So that said, The Itching Palm also argued that tipping was just a way businesses could avoid paying their employees a living wage by shifting the burden onto the customers, which is exactly something that you've already expressed in this episode.

28:06Yes. The itching palm makes a hell of a lot of good points so far. I dig it. Yeah. And finally, it actually argued that tipping was, and this one is something you don't see very often anymore, that it was un-American, that it reeked of that European aristocracy, that having workers essentially beg for an extra coin clashed with the ideals of American society. So of all the criticisms you hear about modern tipping culture, you don't hear that one anymore. If anything, people complain that it's the person with the iPad who's acting like an aristocrat. I'm going to buy the itching palm if that thing is still in print, although it's been 100 years, so who knows?

28:40Actually, I looked it up, of course. It's totally still in print. Wow. So sadly, though, the itching palm did not turn the tide on tipping, and it continued. But as far as people working for nothing, in 1938, as part of the New Deal, the United States government established the first ever federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour, mandating that all employees in the United States had to be paid at least 25 cents an hour. So people couldn't work for free anymore? No, because they literally excluded people who work from tips from the bill. They wrote it into the law that people who work for tips didn't need to make an hourly wage.

29:20But that's not the case anymore, right? People are not working for free. Kind of. That is to say they're receiving a paycheck, but sometimes it's zero dollars. Again, trust me, I know I've received a bunch of them. This is because people who work for tips are paid lower than the actual minimum wage, right? So it's not really the minimum wage, now that I say it out loud? No, it's not even close. And it's called the tipped minimum wage. And that came about after a century of paying tip workers nothing. In 1966, the federal government actually stepped in and created the official sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.

29:51That is to say, a minimum wage for people who earned tips. Now people waiting tables had to be paid at least 62 cents an hour. Jeez, I know a dollar went a lot further back in 1996, but I'm pretty sure 62 cents was still freaking peanuts. And that's why in 1996, the federal government raised the sub-minimum wage to$2.13 an hour. Wow. So in 1996 dollars, I guess that's not too bad. I don't know. Well, guess what? Because that's where the federal sub-minimum wage has remained ever since. Wait, it's still$2.13 an hour in 2026? Yep, still$2.13 an hour. And that pretty much just pays the taxes. which is why when I say I was a waiter in Massachusetts, I would regularly receive paychecks for$0, unless I had a really crappy week in tips, and then sometimes the paycheck would be upwards of$12.

30:44So that's crazy. So if you go into work and it's super slow, you just made$2.13 an hour? Yes, to be honest with you, but technically no. The law is written so that if you don't make money in tips, your employer is supposed to make up the difference, and that should be at least the actual minimum wage. And what is that? Seven bucks an hour or something like that? I don't even know. No, no one can live off of$7 an hour. The federal minimum wage in the year 2026 is$7.25 an hour. Okay. And for the record, in my 15 years of waiting tables, I never met one person for whom the restaurant ever made up for bad tips by boosting their wage.

31:22It just doesn't happen and it's not enforced. So you'd go into work on a slow week and make$2 an hour. Let's not make it sound like pure feudalism here, Jordan. That was$2.13 an hour. Jeez, but you still had to do all the things you were required to do at the restaurant, right? Yep. Fold napkins, clean silverware, take out the trash, clean the mats, you name it. All the restaurant duties. But instead of making$7 an hour, I was paid$2.13 an hour for manual labor. I mean, playing devil's advocate here, the sub-minimum wage is obviously beneficial to the restaurant owners. They create jobs in the community.

31:55So I guess that's the argument for the sub-minimum wage to even exist in the first place. Yes, you're correct. But that is also what anyone sitting in a boardroom for a giant hospitality company will tell you. But here's the argument against it. You noticed that I said when I waited tables in Massachusetts, I made the sub-minimum wage. Then I moved to California, and California is one of the states that makes restaurants pay their employees the minimum wage, like the actual minimum wage. Wow, a full$7.25 an hour? No, no, no. Even crazier, because when I started waiting tables in California, the state minimum wage was$10 an hour.

32:27By the time I finished, it was$15 an hour. Now, I'm sitting in California. I put it over a fact you are sitting in California. So let me ask you something. Are there any restaurants around in California? I have noticed a few restaurants in California. Yes. Yeah, more than a few. California has the most restaurants of any state. OK, we're a huge state, so that's a given. But clearly, the business model of paying tip workers the minimum wage is working. That is good. It's probably close to impossible to live in California on$2.13 an hour plus tips. Yes, but here's the problem. California is an outlier.

33:04Currently, there are only seven states that pay tip workers the state minimum wage. and that is Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Everywhere else, tip workers are still making less than the minimum wage. It's interesting. We live in a world where so many of the restaurants or chain restaurants operate in multiple states. So how do they justify that in one state, they pay their employees$2.13 an hour, and in another state, they pay their employees$15 an hour? How does the business model work in one state and not in another? Yeah, that's an incredibly good question.

33:34If a big chain restaurant can afford to pay waiters in California$15 an hour, why are they only paying waiters in Texas$2.13 an hour? Just doesn't make any sense. And looking for the answer to this question was not that easy. This is not something those giant corporate restaurants want to talk about. But from what I could find, the answer is that menu items are cheaper in the states where they pay their employees less. The people sitting in the boardroom might tell you that if they paid their employees more, the prices would go up and their customers would go to a competitor who is paying their employees the sub-minimum wage.

34:07Okay, that's a truly unsatisfying answer. It seems to me that if you can't pay your employees a living wage, then you really didn't have a job position open for them to begin with. I could afford to pay a whole ton of people two bucks an hour to do my bidding, but I don't know, by my moral standards, that would be wrong. What am I missing here? No, you're not missing anything. Yeah, they claim that this is the business model that they need to survive, but meanwhile, the Olive Garden made more than$5 billion in 2024, And the CEO, Richard Cardenas, he made$6 ,700. What? That's not much at all. No, no, an hour.

34:45I just thought it was only fair that we compare these wages accurately. Yeah,$6 ,700 an hour. That's OK. Now that's pretty sweet. Does that include his tips, though? That's what I need to know. Oh, I wonder. So this business model is hugely profitable, obviously. Companies are making$5 billion and still only paying their employees$2.13 an hour. Look, I'm sure every other industry in America looks at the hospitality industry with envy. Like, I'm sure they would love to pay their employees close to nothing. Clearly, the problem is systemic. The hospitality industry is protecting the tipped minimum wage system because it benefits their bottom line, right?

35:21I'm going to push back a tiny little bit. Michael Rogelio taking the side of the man, the big corporations. What's going on here? No, that's not what I'm doing. The thing I'm going to push back on is that it's not just the big corporations. The sad fact is it's also us, the customers. We are part of the problem. So this has been studied very closely. Professor Michael Lynn at Cornell University is one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of tipping. And his research has shown some really interesting results. So he's run a number of experiments. In one experiment, he gives people two menus.

35:52On one, it states, do not tip. All the costs are factored into the prices you see on the menu, and the servers are paid a decent living wage. On the other menu, it says tipping is appreciated, and the prices reflect the fact that the employees are paid the sub-minimum wage. So they're the same price, right? If you pay$30 for a pizza and you have to leave a$6 tip, that's the same as if you just pay$36 for the pizza and leave no tip? Absolutely. But the only problem is, it turns out, psychologically speaking, everybody prefers the cheaper menu and then to leave the tip. In fact, many businesses have experimented with no tippings, and more often than not, it doesn't work out.

36:31Huh. Yeah, I do remember a few restaurants trying that about 10 years ago, and now I can probably on one hand list the number of restaurants that I know that do no tipping. Yeah, they're out there. It is a model that is still fighting for survival, but one of the most high-profile examples was restaurateur Danny Meyer. He had an entire movement called the Hospitality Included model. And in 2015, they eliminated tipping in all their restaurants. They raised prices roughly 20 % and paid higher base salaries for everyone. The only problem was that the best servers, they freaking hated it. The customers all hated it, and they had to reverse course and bring back tipping.

37:08And this was the fate for pretty much every restaurant chain that tried it. They almost all had to reverse course. That is pretty crazy. Obviously, we humans have some sort of psychological hang-up when it comes to tipping. What's the psychology here? What's going on here? Like I said, it has been studied, and there's been a lot of research done on it, and the results were pretty interesting. So when researchers started, they had three assumptions about why people tipped that they were operating off of. First, that was people tipped for social approval. Researchers believe that people tip because they didn't want their peers to think they were cheap.

37:39Second, they also assume people tip because of fairness and equity. In other words, they tip because it's the right thing to do. I should help this person get ahead with their bills or whatever. And thirdly, they assume people would tip because they wanted better service next time they were in the restaurant. I don't know if this is true, but I heard that the word tip is an acronym and it stands something like to ensure promptness. I don't know. Yeah, no, I came across that. Definitely not true because I actually believe that for a second too. I was like, oh, that makes perfect sense. And then I read, no, that would, the word ensure would be the one with the E, not the I in that case.

38:13Yeah, so it'd be tep, which is not the word. No, no. The word probably comes from the 17th century English slang. To tip was to hand something over to a person. Maybe if a crook was holding you up, he'd say, tip over your money, mate. Yeah, tipping for every transaction also feels like I'm being robbed, so maybe it works. Yeah, yeah, that's actually funny. That's where it comes from. But here's where the findings of the researchers get really interesting. So even if the service was great, research shows the correlation between great service and tipping really isn't a thing. There is some correlation.

38:47So this goes counter to what I was just telling you, but there's a lot of my personal experience that runs counter to what the research found. But they found that there is some correlation for good service and better tips, but it's actually not very strong. For the most part, people tip for other reasons. Again, a lot of this research was done at Cornell University by a guy by the name of Professor Michael Lynn. He's written extensively about the psychology of tipping. And his team found that the number one factor is actually just the mood of the customer. That's it. A cranky person going to leave a crappy tip no matter what the staff was like.

39:20Wow. A cranky customer is probably going to think the service was terrible no matter what, because they're cranky. That's a totally solid point. Yeah. But the other factors the researchers found were that the appearance of the server actually plays into it quite a bit. And sadly, when you read the research, it's not just that if you're shabby looking, of course you're going to get a worse tip because you look like you don't respect the job and you didn't iron your shirt. And these are messages that we send to people about how seriously we're taking the job. No, unfortunately, and I hate to say this, an ugly person makes less tips than a good looking person.

39:56Yeah, I kind of feel gross saying this as well. But hasn't it been proven that women make more tips if they look kind of sexy while they're working? Yeah. Sadly, every woman that's ever waited tables will tell you that's true. Unfortunate, but true. And the research bears that out as well. This plays into actually what psychologists call the halo effect. that is that we just naturally assume good-looking people are more likable competent and deserving and that's not just in the food service that's sadly in society that is objectively unfair and researchers have also found that female servers who wear red lipstick tend to earn higher tips and getting back to what you were talking about where you noticed that a lot of times they'll sit or crouch by the table the research bears that out is too that those who sit or crouch at the table instead of standing when taking an order, they earn more tips as well, including they also found that adding a small personal message to the check boosts a tip.

40:49Every time you get a check and it's got like, thank you with the smiley face on it, that is a server who has either through personal experience noticed that they make more tips or maybe gone in and read the psychology of tipping and understands that's why they do that. And somewhat uncomfortably, the research even says that a light touch between the server and the customer, like briefly placing a hand on a customer's shoulder while asking how everything was going. This also associates with higher tips. I've known a few servers who told me that as well. Here's the other obvious issue. When workers' paychecks become directly connected to keeping patrons happy, even when those patrons cross boundaries here and there, and we all know that there's a bunch of guys out there dumb enough to think that the pretty waitress is being extra nice, that that's some kind of invitation.

41:35Yeah, no, you nailed it there. And there is an underlying cringe factor that exists at almost all restaurants. And that is sadly that the female servers just have to accept this reality that some guys are just going to be cringy. Skeevy. Yeah. Yeah. And this is so interesting because research has repeatedly shown that restaurant workers in states with the tipped minimum wage, that is to say, the sub-minimum wage, that is to say, they are relying solely on the tips. Women who work in restaurants of that nature report much higher levels of sexual harassment. According to industry studies, women working in states with the tip minimum wage were almost twice as likely to report sexual harassment compared to women in states where they received the state minimum wage.

42:21And they were also, in the tip minimum wage jobs, far more likely to report managers telling them to dress sexier to increase tips. Yeah, that's gross. This episode is brought to you by the slow collapse of social norms and by the following sponsors.

42:39This episode is sponsored in part by ZipRecruiter. I'm a big believer in saving time where I can. I'll multitask, stack errands, and yes, we have help with the kids because otherwise the entire day turns into chaos. We all have our own time-saving hacks for everyday life, but if you're a business owner, how can you save time hiring? ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter has a new feature that quickly lets you see the most interested qualified candidates first, so you save time by meeting the right people faster. And right now you can try it free at ZipRecruiter.com. slash Jordan. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly, and candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job, which helps you get a better sense of who's really engaged before you spend time interviewing.

43:16No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Save time and meet great candidates sooner with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Jordan. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Jordan. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. This episode is sponsored in part by ConciergeMD. I've gotten way more interested in preventative health as I've gotten older because I don't want to wait until something is seriously wrong before paying attention to it. Most healthcare is basically built around fixing problems after the fact.

43:49ConciergeMD is one of the few services I've used that actually focuses on optimization before things go sideways. What sold me is how thorough they are. Most doctors run the same standard labs give you seven rushed minutes and send you on your way with everything looks fine meanwhile you're exhausted your recovery sucks your sleep is inconsistent and your focus is all over the place with concierge md they actually take the time to look deeper hormones recovery longevity sleep energy the stuff that directly impacts how you perform every day and it's real physician-led care not a sketchy wellness trend or ai app pretending to be your doctor i also love the convenience they work around your schedule everything's connected under one roof they can even send a phlebotomist to your house to do the draw, the blood draw for the labs at your home, on your own couch.

44:32I just feel more on top of my game since working with them. More energy, better focus, sleeping better. And for me, that translates directly into work, family life, everything. Go to conciergemd.com and use code Jordan for 20 % off all services, including memberships. And if y 'all have any questions about this, I am really using it and I have been for a while. So please feel free to email me conciergemd.com. Use code Jordan for 20 % off. If you want to discuss the show with other fans and other people who actually don't like the show and are still there for some reason, come join us on the Jordan Harbinger subreddit.

45:02Whether you're an experienced Redditor or just want to join the fray, come and find us on the Jordan Harbinger subreddit. Now, back to Skeptical Sunday. So women are expected to tolerate inappropriate comments, touching, flirting, and basically some form of humiliation because the customer is basically deciding whether they can afford their rent. Yeah, I'd be curious about the experiences of the listeners who've also waited tables and see if they line up with my experiences, because my experience was mostly that the female servers I knew laugh it off. Like, it takes a lot to offend them. The dude would have to be particularly egregious piece of garbage for it to become an issue.

45:40They don't want to lose their job either, right? So, like, I would imagine a woman has to decide, do I want to make a big deal about this, or do I want to still work here? Because that guy comes in all the time. He's a regular. They're just going to fire me. So I have to let him fake smack my butt every time I walk by and, like, giggle or, I don't know, whatever cliched annoying thing. Or, like, he's going to ask me out like he does every week, and I'm going to say no, and he's just going to do it again and again and again, and I can't really complain at all. That's gross. That's not okay, even if they do laugh it off.

46:10A lot of cringy compliments, too, about their looks from dudes. It's just, speaking of the stories that I've told, I don't think this could happen anymore. But I do remember one time in 1995 at the Chestnut Tree Mall in Massachusetts, my first job as a waiter. Some dude totally crossed the line. I can't remember what. But I remember the manager walked up to his table, put him in a headlock, and dragged him out to the parking lot. The lawyer in me says with the presence of cameras everywhere now, that dude would come back with a big old lawsuit against, what was the name of the place? It was actually called Paparazzi.

46:46Oh, God. The Chestnut Hill Mall. It's still there. And I will say, I dream of their spaghetti bolognese. I will tell you that. First of all, the name Paparazzi is, yikes. Look, that's a 20th century thing. Headlocking people that get out of line is a 20th century thing. So we've established that some dudes tip because they're dumb enough to think the waitress is being nice to them because they actually like him. How sad. Yeah. Research also shows that social norms play a major role in tipping. Most people just always tip 15 to 20 percent. There's even some meta-analysis suggesting that tipping has an element of mystery and unpredictability.

47:21All that said, I can tell you from experience, and again, I'm curious what the listener's experiences might have been, but that a good server definitely makes more money than a bad server any day of the week. Apparently it's not the only factor, but some research suggests that service quality accounts for only about 1-5 % of a server's tips. I don't want to argue with the researchers, but that number feels a little off to me. I think about this guy Marcus, actually, who worked at the paparazzi at the Chestnut Tree Mall in Massachusetts. Marcus could charm an extra 10 % out of even the crankiest people.

47:54This guy was amazing. So for some people, service definitely means better tips. When you said restaurants that tried the no tips model had to reverse course because customers and staff hated it, is that why staff hated it? Because they couldn't work their magic to get paid more, basically? Yeah, absolutely. Let me pull back the curtain and tell you a little bit about the hierarchy within the server community. Like I said, I don't want to argue with the research, but I'm sure statistically service isn't a huge factor over... millions and millions of transactions. But there are some talented people out there who can charm a table into throwing down extra tips every time.

48:33Like Marcus at that place in the mall. Yes, exactly. And these people are the restaurant's best, most valuable employees, and they definitely exist. And while the no tipping policy probably benefited just about everybody else in the restaurant, it positively decimated these high earning servers. And when these restaurants tried the no tip policy, all the best servers, their best employees, the best ambassadors of their brand, they all quit and went to restaurants that did have tipping. Huh. Yeah, I get that. We've all been charmed by a charismatic server before, and they kind of put you in a trance as you're filling out your credit card slip at the end of the meal.

49:09And you're like, man, I want to buy that guy a new car. Yeah. And everybody loves that server. But the problem is with the proliferation of ubiquitous tipping, we're starting to notice that it's not just the charming server who knows how to get an extra couple bucks out of us by touching our shoulder or wearing red lipstick or whatever it is. The iPad itself is actually using psychological tricks to get a couple extra dollars out of us, too. I know one psychological trick is paying on your phone versus paying in cash. Back in the old days, when you had to count out every dollar, you watch it go from your pocket into somebody else's hand or whatever, you understood the value of the transaction.

49:45But when it's on your phone, maybe it's just me, but the money seems kind of fake. It's fantasy money. It's numbers on a screen. Yeah, that's exactly right. So the iPad has an advantage from the get-go, but the people programming the iPad have also weaponized that little tip window to pressure you into tipping more. Let's start with the psychological trick they call anchoring. So tell us what anchoring is. Okay, so anchoring comes from the world of behavioral economics and has been studied very closely by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who was instrumental in shaping our understanding of judgment and decision-making processes.

50:18So anchoring is the psychology that says when presented with several numbers, the first number your brain sees becomes your reference point. And your brain adjusts its expectations from there. So in the old days with the iPad, if you want to go back to the real old days when the first iPad came around, the first number you saw was actually probably 10 % followed by 15 % and then 20%. Your brain says, okay, so the 10 % is a bad tip, 15 % is an okay tip, and 20 % is a good tip. so without even knowing it you're being conditioned to believe you should leave the middle number and not the lower number yeah that's crazy i'm old enough to remember when 15 was normal and 20 was a really good tip yeah it's funny because this is how anchoring works and i'll challenge you to still find those numbers because now a lot of the ipads and i've seen this myself the lowest tip is 18 and the next option is 22 and then 25 so the person looking at the ipad Red screen thinks 18 % is crappy, 22 % is normal, 25 % is good.

51:19So they basically tricked us into giving them another couple percent. And then you add in the pressure that we've already talked about that comes from the fact that the person you're tipping is staring at you. And very often, without even knowing why you did it, you probably might even hit the 25 % button. So this game is rigged. And I don't want to ruin anybody's income, but there are a bunch of tricks out there that make it even worse. I know from my days of waiting tables that any party at my restaurant that was over five people automatically got the gratuity included. Now, being the honest fellow that I was, I'd always point this out to the customers.

51:51I'd be like, hey, you don't need to tip me. There's already 20 % gratuity included, which, if I'm being totally honest, I was also doing my own little psychological trick, hoping that they would see how honest I was by pointing out that you don't need to give me an extra tip in hopes that they would be impressed and give me an extra little tip. So perhaps there was a little trickery in my honesty. Sure. Yeah, that would not work on me, I don't think. I'd be like, oh, good, thanks for telling me. You'd get nothing else. Yeah, I've seen that gratuity included thing on a check before, and I've also had to ask the waiter, hey, what is this?

52:21Only to have them go, oh, yeah, that's the gratuity. It's already included, knowing full well that had I not noticed, I would have added another 25 % or whatever on top of the 20 % they already charged me. Yeah, that's happened to me too. And I know a bunch of waiters and servers that would intentionally not tell the table that gratuity was included in hopes that it would turn into an extra 25%. And it's annoying. And I get that. We're all trying to get ahead here. But when it's the freaking iPad trying to trick me, playing a psychological game on me, that's when I say something totally has to change.

52:56And when you're trying to play psychological tricks on me with your iPad before the food even comes out, come on. Yeah. And sadly, it's not even just for meals anymore. The iPad is getting pushed at us just about everywhere you go. And a big driver of this, of course, has been the gig economy. Corporate America figured out a long time ago that it's cheaper to just call everybody an independent contractor, offer no salary, no benefits, but to sweeten the deal and to entice people into taking these low paying jobs, they let them solicit tips. And it just turned into a runaway train. People were like, damn, dude, if my Uber driver, my DoorDash driver, my Breastom, my hairdresser, my donut shop employee, my florist and my freaking plumber are all asking for a tip.

53:36Why shouldn't I ask for a tip at my job? Yeah. And rather than do something about this, it seems like both political parties have doubled down on the gig economy and essentially made no tax on tips a big part of their political platform. Yep. And quite frankly, the results have been disastrous or at least deeply unfair because suddenly the person scraping by delivering packages who doesn't receive tips is trying to understand why their friend who delivers sandwiches is receiving tips that they don't have to pay taxes on. It's sort of an arbitrary policy that helps some struggling Americans and leaves others hanging out to drive.

54:12Plus, the dirty little secret the politicians pushing for this policy didn't mention is that actually over one third of tipped employees in America don't even earn enough money to pay any income taxes at all. So it's a little bit of a head fake. Hey, no tax on tips. And people are like, yeah, I'm going to vote for that guy. no tax on tips. And it's like, well, you wouldn't have to pay tax anyway, because you're making under, I don't know what the amount is. You're making such a low amount of money. It wouldn't matter. Yeah. And it's confusing for the rest of us. We've become so conditioned to tip everywhere and everyone that when the nice package delivery guy shows up and hands me my packages and tells me to have a nice day, I sometimes feel like, oh, I'm supposed to tip him too.

54:46I don't know. Yeah. Which is where we are now. Tip fatigue. People are freaking done. Everywhere I go on social media, I see people complaining about tipping. I'm pretty sure the entire system has reached its, I'll just say it, tipping point. I was wondering when you would make that pun. But what is the solution? Because we've already established that we are part of the problem. We apparently like tipping. Corporate America is part of the problem. The major American political parties are part of the problem because of the whole tax thing. Are we just going to overhaul the whole system? I mean, it just seems so unlikely.

55:20Yeah, it's interesting because what you said something at the beginning of this episode that was really salient and that what you said was it's funny that americans were initially turned off by tipping because it seems so european but anyone that's traveled to europe knows that now europeans don't really have this system and we do and spoiler alert europe's full of restaurants yes they're making it work those restaurants are full of servers and those restaurants that are full of servers are also full of customers and the customers don't tip this and the staff doesn't expect it. Somehow the business model just works.

55:53To say that a restaurant reminded you of a little bistro you ate at in Paris, that's always a compliment when somebody says that, right, about a restaurant. When people think of European restaurants, they're not like, oh, they're terrible. The food is bad. The experience sucks. You never really hear that. No, look, again, it's not so different than the no tipping required model that was tried in America, which is they just charge you up front for everything and then pay their employees a higher wage. Look, and at the risk of sounding like I'm on a soapbox, I don't think tipping is the problem.

56:23Tipping is the symptom. We've built an economic system in America where maximum profit is the only acceptable outcome. So businesses behave the way businesses have always behaved, like kids on a playground. If everyone else is doing it, they have to do it too. Except this isn't a playground. And if you don't do it, you're not getting picked last. You're going out of business. Your competitors will bury you. So no, the solution isn't to stop tipping your server, your DoorDash driver, or the barista standing there while the iPad stares into your soul. They didn't build this system. They're just surviving in it.

56:51The real problem is that we've normalized a system where wages are optional, prices are misleading, and the customer is quietly expected to make up the difference. So if we actually want to change, it's not about stiffing workers. It's about asking why we've created an economy where companies can't compete unless they underpay. Workers can't survive without tips, and customers are constantly being nudged, pressured, and psychologically manipulated just to complete a transaction. So that is not a service economy. That's actually a race to the bottom. And if we want something better, then yeah, probably starts with policies and the people we vote for to implement them.

57:25Because right now, we're kind of all just standing there staring at that iPad, being told, it's just going to ask you a quick question. It turns out that quick question leads to a lot more questions. The solution to tip fatigue, though, is not just to stop tipping. I'd love to, but it's not going to work. That system we're talking about has been building for over 100 years. You just don't unwind something like that overnight. It's systemic. But here's the upside. Sounds like nobody really likes it. Workers don't like relying on it. Customers don't like being pressured by it. And plenty of restaurants have actually tried to move away from it.

57:59So if we can say one thing definitively, it's that people are ready for something better. Now, the real question is what that something better actually is and how much of the 21st century economic system we're really willing to change to get there. Thanks, Michael. Hey, good job. Oh, really? It was a good job? Yeah. Oh, thanks, man. Hey, if you don't mind, I'm just going to send you over a little something from Venmo. It's just going to ask you a real quick question. Oh, great. Yeah, I just so happen to have a super quick answer. Just two letters, in fact. So thanks to Michael and thanks to you all for listening.

58:30Topic suggestions for future episodes of Skeptical Sunday to me, Jordan, at jordanharbinger.com. Advertisers, deals, discounts, and ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals. I'm at jordanharbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. You can find Michael at michaelregilio on Instagram. That'll also be linked to the show notes because nobody can spell Regilio. Michael, pay those bills. Tour dates coming up. I'm going to be in New York in the fall if anyone on the East Coast wants to come see me. And War Bar available on Amazon. This show is created in association with Podcast One.

59:03My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Tata Sidlowskis, Robert Fogarty, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Our advice and opinions are our own. And yeah, I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. Also, we of course try to get these as right as we can. Not everything is gospel, even if it's fact-checked. So consult a qualified professional before applying anything you hear on the show, especially if it's about your health and well-being. Remember, we rise by lifting others. Share the show with those you love. And if you found the episode useful, please share it with somebody else who could use a good dose of the skepticism and knowledge that we doled out today.

59:33In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn. And we'll see you next time. When a government bans words, people turn language into code. Laowai86 reveals how Chinese citizens hide dissent in memes, emojis, and mythical creatures, and how AI is now learning to crack those codes. Hear how this censorship cat and mouse game is getting darker on episode 1299 of The Jordan Harbinger Show. We have to understand that China is an absolute totalitarian dictatorship. So these words to get around censorship are very necessary. And I want to say the punishments before we get into this to understand what Chinese people face in terms of trying to express themselves.

1:00:14If you spread rumors, you can get three years in prison. The second level of this is picking quarrels, making people have a debate or a discussion about something online. And if the government decides that you're having a discussion about something they don't want you to talk about, that gets you five years in prison. And then you have inciting subversion. And in China, that is absolutely positively the worst thing you can do. I mean, to the Chinese government, that's like treason almost. So they can get you up to 15 years in prison. And people do face these jail times just for stuff they post online.

1:00:45So keep that in mind when we try to decode some of this language. People are literally risking their freedom and lives to post these things and get their worries out there into the world. To drink tea means you actually go to the police station because the tradition is if you go into any sort of Chinese building or something, you're offered some tea or hot water in a cup. Recently, the way of talking about the current economic situation in China has gotten people arrested. Talk egg prices. If you talk about specifically just eggs, oh, egg prices are really high right now. That's like how to express discontent that life is getting too uncomfortable.

1:01:20Talking about the leader is so off limits, it's not even funny. I mean, that's where you get the 15 years to just actually just disappearing. People that do bring up or ask the leader to step down, that is the worst thing you can do in China, period. Laowai 86 reveals how Chinese citizens hide dissent in memes, emojis, and mythical creatures on episode 1299 of The Jordan Harbinger Show.

1:01:48On the under$3 menu at McDonald's, a McChicken is$2. because when you're craving a McChicken, you deserve a McChicken. And now that McChicken is just$2 with McValue. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over$900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99 % of their auto customers earn at least one discount.

1:02:20Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of$946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.