Skip the tip! Good to see a shift away from tipping after years of more and more tipping. No one is owed a tip. If they want more income, they can talk to their employer or get a better paying job.
I have had waitstaff that were surly, miserable and not deserving of any further compensation.
On the other hand, I have had waitstaff that were engaging, personable and a delight to interact with.
I have always expressed my satisfaction in my tips, sometimes less than the usual 20%, but sometimes, for a particularly delightful waitperson, up to 100% of the meal, since they are the ones that made the experience so pleasurable. Surly begets surly, and pleasant begets pleasant. I enjoy interacting with waitstaff, as they are new people to me and I love interacting with new people.
To legislate a particular wage for people-oriented staff, destroys the motivation to be a particularly pleasant person. Just as a stand-up comedian depends on their people skills, so do waiters and waitresses. It’s a people business and should be treated as such, rather than an entitlement for someone to make my dining experience miserable.
If they do a good job, waiters should be tipped because they receive far below minmum wage base pay. Its used to only be $2.39 an hour plus tips at most restaurants. I don’t know what it is now but probably not that much more. Its obvious why the feds don’t want them to get tips (becaue there’s no way to track their real earnings). In Europe they generallly don’t recieve tips per my experience. Of course you may wait an hour and a half for your food to be delivered too. This latest development is probably just another one of those pushes to make us more like the European model to standardize us for the NWO that’s coming behinning in September if they have their way.