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?
So, all of the general points you make about tipping culture are valid, but it’s batshit crazy to say that it’s “one of the main reasons why Americans are suffering from such large class issues.” One of the main reasons? Are you fucking kidding?
Don’t be so hard on them. Consider that media is owned by private interests, and that’s been their whole life. Unions are evil, worker rights are a privilege, and you wouldn’t want to regulate or tax businesses if it means they would make less profit. They create the jobs, don’t forget that. Nor should you tax private fortunes, that’s already been taxed, even if it is actively used as collateral for loans and a mechanism to avoid income tax. On that topic… higher taxes on very high income is also unwise, because, you can avoid paying income tax by leveraging aforementioned loans, and why would you want that to be inconvenient? Private ownership on necessities of life is also not a problem, especially when you have a legal obligation to maximize profit for stock owners, which I’m sure won’t motivate higher health care prices, or motivate denial of coverage or reduced level of treatment. Same goes with housing being an investment. People got to live somewhere right? That’s a business opportunity right there! Better not regulate that or tax that too much either… It might reduce the value of housing… and you wouldn’t just want anyone to get in on that.
Tipping culture, on the other, if only you could do something about that…
The main reason is that it shifts payment of the wait staff to the customer, not the employer. That means the employer has less payroll, payroll tax, etc. and pockets the difference.
It’s a financial motive, not a classist one.