[yegle]

One random idea that I had for a while to replace tips: when I get a bill, that's the total amount I need to pay. There should be a line asking me to fill in a percentage. That percent of my bill goes to the service.

And most importantly, set the percentage limit to 50%, so owner would have to raise menu price by 100% if they want to simply offset it.

This way, customer don't feel like they are paying twice, the service team still get tips to supplement their lower income.

Of course the restaurant owners won't agree to this because now they are the ones subsidizing the waiter's salary instead of the customers. Just like it should have been.

[Gud]

I have even more radical idea:

Use the agreed upon price set in the menu.

[HDThoreaun]

restaurants have tried this, all the servers quit. It is the servers who are forcing tips on us because they make way more money than they would on wages.

[rustcleaner]

I would explicitly patronize a cafe with a counter I had to walk up to if it had a sign up explaining that they banned tips and offered 30-50% over min-wage but nobody applies. I would chalk it up to entitled service workers who really should be converting material taken out of the ground into something useful instead of waiting tables.

We won't see any real increases to our standards of living in the US again until we bring electric prices down and we start converting more things in the ground into things which make our lives even easier. Climate Change™ has been a wonderous success in slowing down Western inertia, though don't mistake my sentiment as faith in the current administration (lol).

[gambiting]

So what, America is stuck and nothing can ever change from now until eternity?

[Gud]

Did they try paying fair wages? Because in your scenario, they were obviously paid less than they were before.

[mbirth]

There’s a huge gap between a fair wage for some untrained employee that just has to carry around food without stumbling over their own feet; and the amount of $$$ some cute young blonde waitress goes home with after every shift.