I paid for a lot of college with tips I earned bussing tables. We got 10% tip out from servers - allegedly. Those whose honesty was reliable got their tables bussed first and had higher turnover. This benefitted me as well.

Something I see today that I did not 50 years ago is food runners. I can see the advantage of a tip out to runners. But at the end of the shift when you tip 10% to bussers, 10% to bartenders and 10% to runners, that’s 30% less than customers thought you were receiving. I do see how we went from a 10-15% to 18-22% custom.

I’d be in favor of some restaurants eliminating the tipped wage and paying a flat hourly wage. I do think the professionals would still gravitate to places where better service yields a better paycheck.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned above: restaurant work is a huge pool of jobs requiring no drug testing. Those who have abandoned the industry because the job sucks may have second thoughts when hiring managers in other industries tell them they can start right after the lab sends the results of their drug test.