So today I

[Elendon]

Gave a £5 tip to the woman who cut my hair. She is a professional, charges a reasonable price and does a brilliant cut.

I paid £295 for some men to come around and trim back one large tree and cut down another small tree (it was old and needed it). I gave them no tip. (overpriced if you ask me).

From now on, any woman who offers her professional services to me gets a good tip.

It would be very wrong to snigger at that last sentence wouldn't it

No snigger away. If it makes you happy.

Is the idea to address pay imbalance?

Well, what do we learn from that?

Every female hairdresser should just buy a chainsaw and cut trees instead of hair. Much better paid.

Sorry.

If a hairdresser used chainsaws in her work, she might not get tips either. Stands to reason, I say.

Yo!

I do want to equal out equality.

And frankly I'm fed up to the back teeth with expensive and shit services men offer.

Of course they have a wife and kids at home so they need to support them...

Not to mention I'm guessing that if they were like the men who came and took down my leylandii, they didn't sweep up after themselves, and were not shy about coming and having me make endless cups of tea and providing them with snacks....

In the interests of balance, I have had good, fairly priced workmen too - the people who did the fence were awesome, and apologetic for disturbing me (and offered to make their own tea if I showed them where), the gardeners I had for a while were similarly non-cheeky and excellent, as were the removal guys (who diffused a situation with an annoyed neighbour very well too - we bought them breakfast they were so good).

And doing my bit for women, I always make sure women are on the short list when hiring at work (and I hire them if qualified), I pay my cleaner and nanny well over the living wage, and I'm flexible and reasonable with working hours/bringing their own kids.

I think that as an individual, that's a good, practical start.

I've never had a woman come into my home, arse crack hanging, raiding the fridge, charging me a fortune and not actually doing the bloody work.

However I have had some efficient, clean, great male workers as well so NAMALT!

It would make a great Twitter thingy, OP. #tipwomenthedifference or something.

I never tip hairdressers or any other tradespeople. They set a rate for the services they provide and I pay it.

I've never had a woman come into my home, arse crack hanging, raiding the fridge, charging me a fortune and not actually doing the bloody work

I've never had any tradesman that fits that description. I've had several female cleaners who definitely came to my house picked up their money for doing less and less each week.

Current cleaner does so little that other than checking if her money has been picked up it's getting difficult to tell if she has even been some days.

Current cleaner does so little that other than checking if her money has been picked up it's getting difficult to tell if she has even been some days.

Let's scrap OP's idea then. Fuck it. We've found a lazy woman.

I had the worst plumber in the world. Referred by a friend as well!

Let's scrap OP's idea then. Fuck it. We've found a lazy woman

You are free to do what you want. I'm not going to tip someone just because they are a woman or overlook poor quality work just because a woman does it.

I've employed nannies , cleaners and gardeners. The nannies were brilliant, current gardener is brilliant. Theccleaners on the whole start off well but do less and less as time goes by, whether agency cleaners or employed direct. Current one gets over the going rate, definitely does not work the hours she is paid for.

I've used the same set of tradesmen for years and they are reliable and professional.


Chipper blades are a lot lot more expensive to sharpen than scissor blades. Petrol and chain oil isn't free either.
Tree surgeons have a lot of unpredictable down time when the weather is too poor to work or when machinery breaks (expensively) down, which it does even when well maintained as it's worked so hard. Hair dressers don't.
I don't know how the professional liability premiums compare but I know that for tree surgeons, it's a lot apart from the obvious risks, if a tree that they deemed OK falls on somebody's head the following week, they can be held liable).
Only one person can work on your hair at a time. Tree surgeons require a climber and at least one groundsman on the go at any one time.
They are often self employed, so time off due to injury (I know one who broke his back, another with a chainsaw injury severe enough to keep him out of work for months) really hits them hard. Tree surgeons (presumably like hairdressers) suffer a lot of repetitive strain injury despite PPE- I know one whose career was ended when his wrists couldn't take handling heavy saws any more.
Hairdressers don't have to put up with your neighbour turning up to watch them work then verbally abusing them because they don't like the noise of the hairdryer, or they preferred your hair long.
Tree surgeons don't get or expect tips (though my husband was delighted to bring home a bag of Victoria plums from a client today).
He does like it when clients offer them cold water in weather like we've had lately, when he comes home marinaded in sweat every evening (chainsaw trousers and boots all day are necessary for safety but horrible in summer), or tea when it's been cold and raining all day. A lot of clients don't bother.
Finally, if you don't like the price, next time call around a few Arb Association registered companies- pretty much everyone does free quotes and there are enough tree surgeons around to make the market competitive.

Forgot to add...my DH has a wife and child but I earn more than he does, so we support each other. I'll be doing the dropoffs to nursery when I start back after mat leave, he'll do the pickups and is going to take a day off per week to look after DD at home. The tree surgeons I know do an excellent job (bar one who is a bit of a cowboy) and do OK, but I don't know any who are rolling in it.

Well said power . The two jobs aren't remotely comparable .

Everyone should have at least the living wage and should receive respect whatever their sex.

Why didn't you employ some women to come round and cut your trees down?

Help me to understand. Are you tipping the hairdresser just because she's a woman? If it was a male hairdresser would you not have tipped? If there was a female tree surgeon would you have tipped? Isn't it sexist to treat males and females differently?

My usual hairdresser is a woman but if she's not there the salon allocates one of the male hairdressers They are both "senior stylists" so the salon charges me the same rate. They are both very good.

It would be illegal for the salon to pay different rates just because one is a man; if there is any differential it is more likely to be in her favour as she's more experienced than him.

I don't tip either , as I don't tip any trades person , but why would she be more deserving of a tip than him if I did?

Petrol and chain oil isn't free either.

The products that hairdressers require for the job, and to keep a salon hygienic aren't free either.

And the rent for the premises certainly isn't.

And they're often self-employed, too.

And frankly I'm fed up to the back teeth with expensive and shit services men offer.

So only employ women then. You will never be ripped off, never experience shoddy service and help women's businesses thrive. Win-win.