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Visiting the US soon - do I really have to tip?
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No, the bad guy is still the employer, and the culture that exploits both employees and customers and pits them against one another.
Meals in the US are not cheaper than meals in other countries. The menu price is roughly the same. Meals plus tips in the US cost significantly more than meals in other countries.
However staff generally benefit from this arrangement. Places that have trialed better wages and no tips have found that staff make less than what they did if they got tips. So only the customer actually wants a fair deal out of it, and everyone else isn't willing to change.
It's actually not necessarily the employer's fault- if they don't own the restaurant (and most don't) the commercial landlord can force them to hire at tipped wage because they likely have a revenue sharing agreement.