[damnencryption]

What's the point of separating it?

Why not just increase the price of the food and service charges to compensate for the salaries?

It feels like some kind of psychological hack where they want price of food to appear cheap on paper till the moment you pay.

[ryanbrunner]

Most restaurants that do try to eliminate tips end up having an explicit service charge, rather than trying to bake it into the price of food, simply because otherwise all your food is suddenly 15-20% more expensive than the competition.

[pmoriarty]

The point is you don't have to pay an optional tip if you are dissatisfied.

But you do have to pay the full total of your meal regardless of how you felt.

That's why making "tips" mandatory is the scam. It's not a tip if it's mandatory.