Originally Posted by
homa2001
The key words are "their job". They just need to do their job and get paid for it by the proprietor who should be promoting the "experience" you are referring to. This is to say that every server in the restaurant should be providing a similar and good experience to you which should be included in the cost of your food. How the fact that "it's the server's job" factors into "we therefor need to tip the server" is completely beyond me.
And then just to drive this home, if you tip or a service charge is separately included on your bill, it's not like you have a choice to not use the service or not pay it. It's a compulsory item on your final bill. You can't go get your own steak from the kitchen if you don't want the service. So explain to me again why is the "bringing of the steak" or "explaining which burgers are popular" a separate line item?
The second i can go into a restaurant and say "i will put my own order in and pick it up and take my plates out", I will see the point of tipping. Otherwise, since the service is compulsory, it should just be included in the price of the dish.
I don't disagree with your bottom line, but the rest of this post isn't based on reality, and I think you realize that. What you're suggesting is the restaurant industry should pay a fair wage, get rid of tips, and charge the right price to over all these costs. I'm all for that. But the reality, as you've posted previously, is that servers are currently legally paid less than minimum wage with the expectation that tips will make up the difference. In the US, one should assume if they eat at a full-service restaurant, the total payment will be about ~15% higher than the menu price.
Ultimately, whether we agree with it or not, it is a driver of service quality. IME, most servers are friendly and helpful...not because they like us or we're charming but because making minimum wage or more depends on it. Contrary to what some people seem to think, you always have the option of not tipping for unsatisfactory service (mandatory service charges excluded...different story there). The power is in the hands of the customer not the server. If you've eaten in enough European restaurants, you'll realize this is true.
Again, I'd rather the whole scheme just go away. Charge me $20 for my burger and I won't pay a tip. I'll know what I'm buying and the server will know how much he's getting paid. But trying to change that as a single customer every time you go to a restaurant isn't the right approach, based on the current pay structure. As much as this free-market capitalist hates to admit it, at this point we'd likely need a law banning server tips to affect change.