CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
One of the main problems with that is that it removes the financial incentive to pursue excellence. It's the reason I don't follow the "automatic" 18%. If someone is excellent, they get much more than that. If they're rude, they get less. Eliminating gratuity would mean that the crappy waiters are making just as much as the exceptional ones.Playing devil's advocate for a minute here. What if, say over the next 5 years Americans grew tired of the societal expectation of tipping in restaurants and everyone stopped, thus making not tipping the societal norm? What if Americans tired not of tipping, but tipping based on the price of the food served and left $5 or $10 dollars on a $100 tab? Would restaurant owners raise their prices in order to compensate wait staff for lost tips? Would there be fewer and fewer waiters and waitresses causing restaurants to lose customers and eventually have to close? Societal norms can and do evolve.