That’s all good in theory, but in practice? Look up statistics on wage theft in the restaurant industry (hell, look up wage theft as whole in the US), and you’ll see that many, many workers go under paid.

And even if employers always met the minimum wage, the minimum wage is far less than a “living wage,” in this country.

Again, I want to stress that the practice of tipping is absolutely outdated, and should be removed. My point is simply that not tipping your waiter does more harm to them than their employer.

We should be encouraging these places to unionize, and demand that their employers pay them fairly.

Culturally, there will be people who will look down on or say nasty things to you if they find out you do not/did not tip. This happened to me.

Emphasis mine. You said you don’t tip, and you are stating that they wouldn’t be in the wrong for not tipping. Just because you don’t outright say they shouldn’t tip, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavily implied by your wording.

We can agree that tipping should be eliminated, but if you knowingly go to a restaurant where your waiter requires tips to make a living wage, and you don’t, you are most certainly AH. The solution is to not go to these restaurants.

If it should be the employers job to pay a living wage, why would you take it out on the employee? Most establishments in the US pay waitstaff way under minimum wage ($2-$3 per hour). If you don’t tip your waiter at an establishment like this, you are basically denying that waiter their wage, and it has no effect on the employers bottom line. You should be prepared to tip, otherwise don’t go at all.

And for the record, I agree with your first statement: the owners should be paying their employees a living wage. Tipping as a practice should be largely eliminated. However not tipping doesn’t help that situation, it just hurts the employee. If you want it to change you should boycott restaurants that do this and be an advocate for fair wage laws.

Haven’t heard this tune in a long time. Still hits.