[Fun fact about America] Marriage penalty on taxation

If there's one aspect on human rights report which China actually did slightly better than US, it could be the Gender Pay gap. 

That was close!

What I don't understand about it is the fact that taxation actually helps to widen the gender pay gap by the so called "marriage penalty". 
According to the below chart from taxfoundation, marriage penalty hurts couple with 50/50 income contribution the most, no matter it is a low income or high income household, with or without kids.

Nowadays, since dual income family is the new normal form of household, a marriage penalty in taxation could discourage the idea of getting married at all, which hurts birthrate, increases single parent family. Especially in lower income household, $1500 difference in annual taxation is actually a lot of money. 

In higher income household, this could result in discouraging one spouse from working because it no longer makes sense considering the additional taxation and child care cost, thus lower the overall labor participation rate.

Overall, marriage penalty hurts dual earner family and it hurts equal right for woman.

Oh, in case you wonder how personal income tax works in China, below is the brief idea.

1, Tax is collected per individual. It makes no difference whether you're married or not, have kids or not.

2, Tax is collected not withheld from your paycheck every month. For most people, that's it. No tax form, tax return, CPA, W-2, W-4, 1040, nothing! (No chance of getting your money back as well.)

3, ZERO taxation on capital gain. 

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays!

[Fun Fact in China] No tipping in China

If you happen to have the chance to travel to China, you don't need to tip anyone. Usually, a service charge is included on your bill in hotel, fine dining, etc. Otherwise, service charge is basically "priced in" your food, drink, etc. Therefore, there's no need to tip, unless you really can't help it.

If you work in the service industry, please do not blame Chinese tourists for not tipping. Chances are they have no idea that they are supposed to. A thoughtful reminder would do the trick.

In fact, most countries do not tip as much as US, probably because they have a minimum wage. Here's the tipping map from Huffpost.

Two small surveys at the end, please leave your comments on the tipping culture. Do you feel anxious not knowing how much tip is expected when travelling?

If you have a choice, which one of the below options would you prefer?

1, No tips, price it in my food.

2, Include a service fee, .e.g. 15% in my bill.

3, I would like to tip whatever I want.

To be honest, would you tip less when tipping through an app/website, such as amazon prime now, lyft, or any other food delivery app?

1, Yes, I admit I tip less if I am not dealing this face to face.

2, No! I tip them just as if I am tipping my waiter/pizza boy/taxi driver.

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays to you all!