I seem to know a lot more Americans, than I did before I visited two years ago. I think it’s partially that, after I visited, I found myself following lots of travellers, so I could marvel at their local adventures and write a list of all the beautiful places I would visit, if I was ever to return. I have noticed a few distinct cultural differences between the US and UK that I find fascinating enough to write a blog about them
1) Paying for health care
Top of the list has to be paying for health care. In England, when you are sick, you get support from your doctor or you can go to a hospital and though there may be a (long) wait, eventually a highly skilled person will fix whatever is wrong with you. We don’t pay for this, directly. We pay, via a mandatory tax which is taken out of our pay packets. (This is mostly from National Insurance – and up to 12 % of our salaries. Your employer is also expected to pay National Insurance, dependent on your earnings, and they pay approx 14% towards this cost.)
Most Americans have health insurance (often through their employers) and most accidents would be covered under their insurance premium. Much like our dental practices in the UK (which we pay for), for general appointments (our equivalent of GPs), US citizens must pay. For important surgeries and operations, most of these would be covered under the person’s insurance, but it really depends on their premium type. Some people can’t afford health insurance; if they are injured, they may try not to go to hospital, as they may not be able to afford the surgery. US hospitals have an oath to treat patients in urgent situations, but the recipient is likely to receive an invoice for the amount after treatment – and the cost of this can be really high (often $30k – $100k for surgery). Citizens will often be allowed payment plans to pay this money back after a period of time, but imagine, if you will, $100k of debt, on your back, after a skiing accident or falling off a ladder, and you are not sure when you will be able to work again. (This is a nice overview of how it works – thank you HSBC.)
Every person in the UK is entitled to “free” health care. This has massive benefits in that there is no inequality between those who can afford health care, and those that can’t. It means people from lower income backgrounds get the same level of care, as those within a higher income bracket. There are options in the UK to “opt” for private healthcare, if you so wish (and if you are a billionaire, you may prefer to do that), but most people don’t, because the standard of care is good and British people believe that health care should be for everyone, not a privilege for the rich. People in the UK do not go bankrupt from their health care bills, they do not have to factor in health insurance, they don’t have to worry about health insurance expiring or paying for services on the way out of A&E. To Americans, it probably seems really very strange. We can be carted into a hospital and waltz out again without a cheque book or a credit card.
2) No maternity pay
I found out recently that American companies don’t pay their (American) workers maternity leave. In the UK, every woman is “entitled” to some maternity leave – the statutory period is 6 weeks at 90 % pay, but most companies pay (some) maternity (pay), up to 39 weeks (9 months). It varies, per company, but depending on your contract, this could be up to a year of (paid) maternity leave. In the UK, it is law that you have to hold a woman’s job open, while she is on maternity leave. She can also choose to take maternity leave for up to a year, without pay, if she so wishes – and the company has to hold her role open for the first 6 months of that. If she returns after 12 months (and they have replaced her role), then they can offer her an alternative role with the same pay and perks. This allows women to be able to continue their careers, after having children. (see: gov.uk/maternity for more details)
In the US, apparently, it is pretty standard that women are not offered any statutory maternity pay. However, something called the Family and Medical Leave Act requires that US employers (with 50 or more employees) allow women to take up to 12 weeks off, after their pregnancy, while holding their job and health insurance in place. Companies are not required to pay women during this period. Many US women resign their roles, as soon as they are pregnant. Women who want to return to the workplace, after bearing children, are then faced with the difficult process of finding another job.
3) How American companies expect customers to pay their staff wages, via “tips”, because they don’t pay their service staff appropriately
In the UK, we don’t really leave tips. They are certainly not mandatory and we only really leave them in restaurants, where we’ve had a really nice meal and the service has been impeccable (like as a “bonus”). The tips we leave tend to be about 10-12.5% of the cost of the meal. It’s at the customer’s discretion; sometimes, this will be added on the bill by the restaurant, but you can opt to get this removed from your bill, if you so wish. We don’t, generally, leave tips for haircuts, in cafes, coffeeshops or hotels. It is expected that service people, and wait staff, specifically, are paid by the companies that hire them, not by customers directly.
In the US, it is pretty commonplace to expect a 20 % tip on top of the cost of pretty much everything. In restaurants and cafes, a charge of 20 % is often added to the bill. American servers don’t consider this to be optional, in the way we do in the UK. When we visited, we left the expected tip in restaurants, more or less because our guidebook told us too – and we thought we might want to go back there!
Servers in the US feel “entitled” to tips, as they cannot survive on the wages paid in the service industry. And this is true in the UK too, these companies often don’t pay more than minimum wage and as the cost of living is high in the UK too, so the people who work in these industries are often students, or have more than 1 job. UK companies are expected to pay ” the living wage” to their staff (it’s £8.91 as of 2021 – £17,374 per year) but many people would argue that this isn’t liveable. And if you compare to the average UK salary of £31,000 that’s 44% less!
Unlike the US, in the UK, we don’t feel it is the customer’s responsibility to “top up” these wages with tips; we believe that companies should be responsible for their operating costs (it’s their business after all); if they want to operate, they should pay their staff fairly and not expect customers to “top up” their failure to operate responsibly. I realise this is a big cultural difference and it fascinates me how fixated Americans are on this: how this is the customer’s problem to solve. And much like healthcare – it’s you (the customer’s) problem to solve.
Most of the dinners we bought, when we were in the US, cost us between £15-20 each, plus a tip of between £8. In contrast, if me and my boyfriend went for a meal, locally in London, we would probably spend £35-40 between us (including tip). In the US, we’d be looking more like £45-50 for the same meal. If you are on a low income, then that could mean the difference between eating or not eating out.
The reason I find it interesting is because there’s such obvious wealth inequality in the US. It’s a giant country, so there are lots of uber rich people, but there are also a lot of people on low incomes that would likely not be able to eat out because the cost is so much higher than it is in Europe. In Europe, everyone goes to eat out. If you go to Italy, or Portugal, for example, every single person of whatever income bracket will frequent cafes for 1 euro espressos or go to a restaurant for a beautiful 10 euro meal. But, there is a tipping culture in the rest of Europe. It is very common to leave a 10 % tip for most things, across Europe. From that eye opening first espresso, to your power lunch, to a lazy afternoon Aperol Spritz on a terrace, it’s fairly common to leave a euro or two for the wait staff. And when 10 % equates to a euro or two, no one really minds that much.
Back the UK, it’s definitely expected that the company should pay the server’s wages. I think in the UK, we have much higher expectations around companies’ social responsibility, to uphold worker’s rights and to pay them fairly. We actively boycott companies who treat their employees like shit (looking at you Wetherspoons!) but in the US, there appears to be no backlash to companies’ lack of respect and fair treatment of their employees. It’s just something that the average American has been brainwashed to accept as “normal” and that they expect customers to solve.
4) How their taxes are so low
In the UK, the tax brackets look like the below. TLDR: people on low incomes pay less tax and people on higher income brackets pay more tax. This isn’t perfect, the income brackets are too low to reflect the reality of high wages – there is a question of whether people who earn £150k per year should be expected to pay the same percentage of tax as a person earning £1m per year. But here they are:
Under £12,750 p/a – tax free
£12,571 to £50,270 – 20 % tax band
£50,271 to £150,000 – 40 % tax band
£150k+ – 45 % tax tax band
Source: gov.uk
(Please note: the top band was recently lowered – as it used to be 50 %. Ah the tories, always making those who already have money – even richer! If you asked me to do that tax band by the way, without looking at the economy budget, it would be more like: first £20k tax free, £20-50k @ 20%, £50k-£200k @ 40k, £200k-£1m @ 45%, £1m+ @ 50%)
There is a different rate for the self-employed (usually owners of their own companies) – as they pay themselves in dividends and can put through many of their expenses through their company. These tend to be the richer people in our society, if we’re being honest.
The interesting thing about our ranges are that they add up cumulatively, meaning that every single person gets their first £15k earnings tax free, the next £50,270 is charged at 20%, and then the next £150k at 40%, etc. Each person is assessed, individually.
We also have to pay National Insurance (which is an additional tax of up to 12% of earnings – this is what actually pays for your health care). Tax for lower thresholds tends to be about 22 % total (including 2% NI), tax for mid earners about 52% (including 12% NI) and tax for high earners 57% (including 12% NI). This is why we are precious about our money because we don’t take home all of our salaries. Our real life take-home is often substantially less, than our net pay. You are essentially losing half of your salary, before you ever receive it. So tell me again why we shouldn’t have “free” healthcare? (Source: gov.uk)
There are no joint calculations in the UK. Each person is assessed individually.
In the US, the federal income brackets are much lower. Federal taxes are also calculated as “married” or joint income. And there is something called “head of the household”. This chart basically tells you, it’s more tax efficient to get married in the US.
| Single | Married Filing Jointly | Married Filing Separately | Head of Household | |
| 10% | $0 – $9,875 | $0 – $19,750 | $0 – $9,875 | $0 – $14,100 |
| 12% | $9,876 – $40,125 | $19,751 – $80,250 | $9,876 – $40,125 | $14,101 – $53,700 |
| 22% | $40,126 – $85,525 | $80,251 – $171,050 | $40,126 – $85,525 | $53,701 – $85,500 |
| 24% | $85,526 – $163,300 | $171,051 – $326,600 | $85,526 – $163,300 | $85,501 – $163,300 |
| 32% | $163,301 – $207,350 | $326,601 – $414,700 | $163,301 – $207,350 | $163,301 – $207,350 |
| 35% | $207,351 – $518,400 | $414,701 – $622,050 | $207,351 – $311,025 | $207,351 – $518,400 |
| 37% | $518,401+ | $622,051+ | $311,026+ | $518,401+ |
(Jesus, if the man is always head of household, that means that women are actually taxed more than men! Look at the “single” column vs “head of the household” for the lower tax brackets – married men are getting tax breaks!)
The average salary in the UK is £31,461. In the US, the average salary is $94,700 per year (£66.902) – which is more than twice as high.
The average (single) person earning $94,700 (£66.902) would pay 24 % tax which would mean a take home of $71,972 (£50,861). At the highest tax band, a (single) person earning $518,401+ (£366k) would only be charged 37 % tax, which would mean a take home of $326,593 (£230,799).
In comparison, the average UK person earning £31,461 would pay 22% tax (including NI) which would mean a take home of £27,686. At the highest tax band in the UK, you would be charged 57% tax (including NI) on £150,000. This is a take home of £64,500 after tax.
If you want to compare oranges with oranges, then a person earning £366k in the UK, would pay 57% tax, which would mean their take home is actually £157,380 which is £73,419 less than an American earning exactly the same amount of money. (It’s even more if you take into consideration the “married man tax break”.)
5) How it’s naturalised that women don’t work
I guess because of the above points: that it’s tax efficient to get married, the “head of the household” is given a tax break and because Americans don’t believe in paid maternity leave for women, it’s naturalised in their culture that when women get pregnant, they quit their jobs and become full-time home workers (in our terminology: housewives and unpaid carers). In this culture, women almost always stay home and look after the children, while the father’s life is not impacted at all by the birth of the children and all the mental and physical load of caring for children falls to the woman. Women aren’t paid as well as men in America; presumably for this reason, they have to take years out of their careers to be child carers and then they lose years of experience and have to get back on the ladder, back where they got off five or six years before.
In the UK, for my parents’ generation, this was certainly the case too. In the last twenty years, however, there has been a massive shift, presumably because of the number of women in the workforce, which has increased due to legal statutes such as the Equal Pay Act and the Discrimination Acts working to improve working conditions and opportunities for women.
Women have “proper” maternity rights (in fact, maternity rights aren’t new) but employers can be prosecuted from not hiring women because of the fact they are women (and may at some point want to go on maternity leave). I mean some companies still won’t care, and will discriminate (I’ve seen it with my own eyes), but many companies operating in the UK, actually, proactively hire women, and support women who return, from maternity leave, in positive ways. Women in the UK are encouraged to take time off work to let their bodies heal from the trauma of child bearing but they can return to work, whenever they wish (within that year) and whenever, economically, it makes sense to them to do so. Paid child care is quite naturalised in UK culture. We often pay other women (mostly) to look after our children. We have nurseries for our children to go to from aged 3. Often, more wealthy families, in the UK, will have “live-in” au-pairs to look after their kids. Often parents will drop their kids at a nursery or with a carer on the way to work. Other women (not always on lower incomes, but often so) will quit their jobs and become full time carers for their kids, especially if one parent earns significantly more than the other (and fyi, it doesn’t always mean the woman. In the UK, many men stay home and look after their kids <3).
In the US, “moms” do all this work. “Moms” quit their lives to become “moms”. And this may suit them – they may be very happy to do so – but this isn’t optional. It’s an expected part of their culture. And to us, under 45s, in the UK, we find that pretty sexist!
6) The “trophy wife” (“career wife”) phenomenon
Perhaps because all women are expected to “stay home” and perform “unpaid caring” duties, Americans have a very high number of women who become “trophy wives” to snag a rich husband. These women often have careers as models, actresses, secretaries, real estate workers, etc, (Melania Trump or the Kardashians are the ultimate “trophy wives”) but they do these jobs, often, to meet rich men, who will take care of them throughout their lives (or, at least, until they cash-out in the inevitable divorce settlement). These women exist, not just as unpaid carers for their joint children with their sugar daddies (and maybe they don’t look after their own kids) but, more importantly, as arm candy at awards’ shows, important business meetings, and as conversation “filler” / decoration at the country clubs. They are a status symbol for the men, who want other men to envy what they are loving nightly but not really at all or, at the most, only ever so slightly.
In the UK, we generally find these people really grotesque. British people find this notion preposterous and we harshly judge men who fuck their secretaries and leave their wives, so they have something pretty to look at over dinner. We find their surgical, airbrushed faces, fake tan and coiffured long, blonde, hair grotesque. In all honesty, women who have careers in the UK sneer at these sorts of women. They, probably, look down on them. They, probably, pity them because we find that culture trashy and misogynist. And most women, in the UK, want to be empowered, have their own lives and not be beholden to some douche bag with a fat wallet and a golfing bag. (Regardless of their political affiliations, I must say. This applies to the whole political spectrum.)
“Trophy wives” do exist in the UK. Again, it tends to be models and actresses who get caught by a rich predator, looking for a pretty doll to hang on his arm. It isn’t that common though. You can usually tell these women a mile off, because they have given up all their rights and they tend to be very grateful (read: desperate) because they see their looks as a commodity to sell; and their “beauty” as their only economically viable source of labour. Exchange value capitalism at its finest folks, aren’t we all proud?
7) How confident they are
Americans are so confident! It’s maybe because in the UK, we are mostly bought up to be self-effacing, reflective and y’know aware of other people, but we don’t really have the same level of self-confidence that Americans do. Americans are generally go-getters! They have a great attitude for going after what they want. Often, in fact, they feel very entitled that they should receive what they want (The customer is always right, after all). Americans will walk into a room and demand stuff. If you are an American, who works with the British, you’ll very quickly notice how this puts the backs up of your British colleagues. British people “collaborate”. We do everything via a (damn) committee. We have meeting, after meeting, to discuss what we are doing and agree a way forward. We don’t force others to do what we want; we have to quietly, and assertively, put forward our proposal and then we have to convince other people that it is a good idea.
Americans will often walk into a room, share a vision and demand compliance and the British will be very cynical about this approach. We’ll find fault, after fault, with this proposal. It’ll be very painful to get us to do your bidding for you. We don’t like to be told what to do – we want to be engaged, heard and collaborated with. Brits are confident, when we have the group consensus. We can be quietly confident but we don’t tend to operate in the aggressively confident, and entitled, way some* Americans do. (Before you get at me: NOT ALL Americans!)
8) How helpful they are
Ah, the American good samaritan! Americans are very helpful people. If you having issue at a gas station, can’t read a menu, need directions, want to ask a question, no worries, an American has time for you! They will show you how to fill up your gas, recommend you good food on a menu, give you great directions, answer your questions, jump in the road to save a parking space for you, lend you their bikes, their map to go for a hike, anything they can help with is, is no trouble at all for an American. They are (often) great neighbours, people who work in service industries are impeccably helpful, every person you meet will be wonderful to you, especially if you are a travelling English person who has questions about their beautiful town.
In the UK, don’t bother to ask people to help. They will very rarely have time for you. A Brit is always late to get somewhere. A Brit will roll his/her eyes at you that you can’t just use Google. (Basically, don’t ask us anything that Google could tell you.) We will give you directions, if you stop and ask us, but it will be begrudgingly, and those directions won’t be good. You’ll end up in the “vicinity” of wherever it was you wanted to go, rather than the actual place, but hey, getting lost is all part of the fun of being a Brit! We’re too stubborn to stop and ask for directions, ourselves, so we just want you to have as much fun, getting lost, as we do!
9) American drivers actually give way at crossroads
Americans have a rule at crossroads that all cars must stop. The cars must proceed in the order that they arrive at the intersection. There is no road that has priority, all the roads that meet must stop. Americans follow this rule to the T. Every, single, driver stops at these intersections and every, single, driver goes in turn, according to who arrived first, every, single, time. It’s a wonder of American roads! And you won’t believe it – but they actually obey this rule, every, damn, time!
The UK is (quite) different. If you drive up to a crossroad in the UK, it doesn’t really matter who got there first. Get that out of your head! Two lanes of traffic will have the right of way, and this traffic will continue across the intersection, without interruption. On each side of this road, there will be — lines signifying a “give way” action. If you are on one of these roads, you will have to wait for a gap in the traffic to continue your journey. If you have two opposite — lines (which we often do), a crossroads, if you will, then welcome to hell ; you will never get across this road, until someone waves you to go.
You see, the (unofficial) rule in the UK, on the “give way” roads, is that you have to let the more aggressive driver have the right of way, so your car does not get hit. Of course, you are meant to give way, according to who arrived first, but you never really know who that is, because you are watching the flow of traffic from the major (uninterrupted) road. So if you are ever at a crossroads, and you’re not an aggressive person, the rule is just sit and wait until someone lets you go. If you are aggressive, go ahead and go but just hope that the person on the opposite side isn’t aggressive too – or you’ll end up with a dent in your bonnet.
10) How politics in the US is mostly about federalism vs confederalism but Brits see it through our socio-economic left vs right lens
This probably deserves its own blog- and maybe at some point I’ll write one! But this is probably the biggest difference between the UK and Americans and a thing which we see through our own lens. In fact Americans don’t see “left” vs “right” in the same way that we do in the UK. These notions are very very different, but in the media you’ll see this reported from the lens of whichever country you are in. (I will link to the separate blog about this here, once I write it, as I don’t think I can do this point justice in three paragraphs.)
11) How giant America is
The omnipresent nature of Google maps in the UK and Europe has perhaps lulled us into the false sense of security that the world is actually quite small. But one day, you will go to America and you will realise there is a giant piece of land that has a low population density in comparison (to Europe). When you leave the big cities, you’ll see just how expansive the land is here – and therefore, just how long it takes to get anywhere! You cannot drive for more than about 14 hours in the UK – John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in Cornwall (the longest stretch of land across the UK) is a 14 hour drive. If you were to drive from Pismo Beach in California to Mann’s Harbour in North Carolina, which is across the breast of the US, then that drive would take you 43 hours. (One of the longest drives I can find is Orleans Town in Rhode Island from Port Angeles in Seattle, which is a 49 hour drive.) A fourteen hour drive, I would probably do in about 3.5 days because I don’t like to drive for more than 3 hours. A drive across the US would take me 14.5 days, by that logic. Basically, the country is huge. This may also be why they drive automatic cars because it would be incredibly exhausting to be changing gears the whole time!
12) There are motels everywhere and they love their RVs
If you wondered why there is such a proliferation of RVs and motels across the US, the scale of the land is why. It takes hours to get anywhere! Americans love exploring their beautiful land and they will spend many days and weeks away from home. Many families have RVs to explore new lands. Many people utilise the many motels, near interstates and highways, to give them a break while making long journeys. We don’t really have this concept in the UK, our hotels are used mostly for holidays and overnight stays for family events. We don’t tend to use them to have a rest from driving. Some families do have RVs (or caravans) in the UK, some people here even live in them. But it is not as common. Though it is still probably more common than the rest of Europe, to be honest, because (household) driveways are much more common here than they are across the rest of Europe.
13) Americans love their cars – and they are huge fuel guzzlers
Cars are so popular in the US, because really you can’t get very far without one. Americans drive those kind of trucks you see in toy stores (hot wheels), as their regular family car. They guzzle huge amounts of fuel and they are probably quite bad for the environment but Americans have to make long journeys and the bigger cars are more comfortable.
In the UK, we have quite small cars, because we have really small roads. They are not made for 4x4s, in the same way that the US is. I have a micro-4×4 and I grind my teeth on some of our roads here, because they are just so narrow. In the US, the roads are really wide. Their main roads are often 3 lines of traffic (like motorways here). And you won’t ever struggle to find a car parking space in the US, driving around for an hour looking for one, before admitting defeat and leaving for somewhere else, in quite the same way you will in the UK. There are parking lots absolutely everywhere and next to almost every single restaurant. In the UK, you can sometimes expect to park about 1 mile from the town centre and most restaurants do not have their own parking lots. Good luck finding a space in UK tourist “hot spots” in high summer – you may as well just drive to the beach, with your own sandwiches – you can thank me later for this tip!
13) Their National Parks are on a scale you won’t believe
When you go to the National Parks in America, the scale of these parks will also astound you. They make the Peak District look like a farmer’s field. We went to Joshua Tree, two years ago, and the scale of the land there was absolutely fascinating. Miles and miles of nothing but desert – and Joshua trees! Long, open, never-ending roads, that lead to some of the most beautiful destinations you will ever see! I’m really looking forward to more trips to the United States and learning more about this great nation! I am especially looking forward to visiting more of your (giant) National Parks – and meeting more of your kind and helpful people! Sorry if we forget to tip you; it’s not something we always do!
we dance to all the wrong songs 