There are laws in place for service workers related to minimum wage. The employers have to make up the difference if tips don’t meet the rate for hours worked. It seems to me that’s not sufficient for the times.
Hypothetically, if everyone were to stop tipping in the U.S. would things be better or worse for workers? Would employers start paying workers more?
While Restaurant margins are low, raising them to minimum wage wouldn’t bankrupt them, but it might cause some employees to quit who were making a lot more than that. I don’t know if that’s your goal or not.
A better idea would be to coordinate a campaign to stop going to restaurants that do tipping. Don’t make the worker out in the work that way.
but it might cause some employees to quit who were making a lot more than that
Wouldn’t this, in turn, create a competitive advantage for restaurants offering higher base wages (and including what used to be tips in menu prices to begin with)? Or, if they are too stubborn for that, and good employees are lost to the industry forever and quality declines, maybe people go to restaurants less. In general I don’t like the food service business and go out of my way to avoid it altogether, but I think that paying into an exploitative thing like tips just because you and the worker have been put into that kind of manipulation isn’t the right decision. That said a campaign to stop going to restaurants that do tipping seems like a good idea also.
