Boo Boo,

I believe the UK minimum wage is now 6.40 GBP per hour. SIGNIFICANTLY MORE than you stated above.

As for tipping in NY as referenced above, I love when the Indian/Egyptian/Albanian guy with the heavy accent that has given crap service and been in the country for five minutes tries to give a 15% speech!! It cracks me up, I in turn inform them that it is illegal in NY state to require a percentage tip or include it in the bill. If they have a further problem I call the police. If the service was crap I have NO TIME for that garbage.