Tipping culture npcs

If you are are trying to find logic within tipping you might as well chase windmills. It's dumb as bolts.

Chasing a windmill would be really easy tho.
- Just don't get chasing waterfalls though.
  
  On the other hand rivers and lakes are so stupid.

Well usually more people means a higher bill, more people is more work. Lots of places even just add gratuity to the bill once a group size is large enough.

But tipping is dumb, and working in the service industry sucks... I have no easy solutions.

I have no easy solutions.
There's an easy one that could be legislated tomorrow by any states.
Raise minimum wages and enforce it throughout ALL workplaces, including wait staff. Nobody should be earning less than a living wage just because they're restaraunt staff.
- Nobody would work in a restaurant for minimum wage. Full stop. It's a shit job.
  That's the secret nobody in the industry wants to tell you. They make way more than minimum wage on good nights. You could come away at $25-30/hr on a Friday night.
  
  Absolutely. it's a bad precedent.
  Minimum wage staff still get tips though. I still tip here now that it's mandatory they get paid min wage. Overall, means that they make more than before they were earning min wage as well.
  it's a big win. They ge ta living wage doing their jobs and they get bonuses in tips on top of their living wage instead of relying upon it.
  
  Which is what workers at McDonald’s in other countries make per hour, not including benefits. Oh, and the food is cheaper than in the states too.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_wage
  There are exactly 0 countries on this list that are above $18 per hour. You for some reason thing that wait staff is getting 25-30...
  Luxemburg and Australia are among the highest on the list...
  Luxemburg...https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/McDonald-s-Luxembourg-Salaries-EI_IE432.0,10_IL.11,21_IM1092.htm
  Australia... https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/McDonald-s-Sydney-Salaries-EI_IE432.0,10_IL.11,17_IM962.htm
  You're wrong or lying. Either way... doesn't help your case.
  
  List is a bit outdated. Minimum wage in Germany is 12,41€ not 12€. Can't say how outdated the other entries are though. But that list still doesn't disprove the statement above. While it could be seen as unlikely there is no rule out there that fast food employees have to make minimum wage. I wouldn't work at a fast food place for minimum wage. I make minimum wage delivering newspapers on 2 days. I would expect a fast food employee to make more. Haven't seen a recruitment ad recently because I don't often go to fast food places (countable on 1 hand for a year) but I've seen grocery store recruitment ads for cashiers recently and they get more than minimum wage. I mean of course they do, as if someone would want to work as a cashier for exactly minimum wage
  
  Good thing o only used the list to find places that have high minimum wages then eh? The glassdoor numbers were the focus.
- Seattle's minimum wage is $16.28, but most restaurants seem to pay a fair bit more than that. Tipping is still rampant and has not been reduced. I don't think this solution would work
- Politics is one of those things that's easy when you say it, but much harder for you to do. But if that's easy for you to do, then please do it, for all our sakes.
I think the $20 vs $200 was a per person price. Like, if I order the steak for $50 and you order a grilled cheese sandwich for $8, we both got the same amount and quality of service, why do we tip differently?

Because it's a con, and if it were a flat rate, people would see it for the con it is. By making it a percentage of sales, you can delude people in to believing they're going to make more in tips than they would on an hourly rate.

Sometimes that's true, for the vast majority of servers it isn't.

I see it as a sneaky incentive from management for waiters to upsell you on more sides, drinks and desserts.

Since the more marked up extras a waiter/waitress can fool people into getting, the better tip they can hope to earn at the end because of the %-based expectation.

- Not every meal in a "$x/plate" restaurant is gonna cost the same though. It's not hard to reach a disparity between the cheapest and most expensive reasonable meal (similar sizes) of around a factor of 2 at many restaurants.
  Why is the server getting twice the tip if I order the most expensive plate and dessert vs cheapest plate and dessert?

If you're getting the same level of service at a restaurant serving $200/plate meals as you are at TGI Fridays, either you're being ripped off of your local Fridays has amazing servers.

Serving a $200 meal requires a lot of knowledge and physical skill that the server down at Chili's probably doesn't have. The kind of restaurant that sells a $200 meal also has a larger support staff that must be given a percentage of the server's tip

You're not wrong, that's the logic behind it. It's not like you're defending it so idk why you're getting down voted! What you also didn't mention is that at these restaurants is that it is a much more leisurely meal and experience, so there isn't high table turnover which lessens the tips. I suspect they also have smaller sections.
You're the only one who gets it.
Everything is probably a la carte. You gotta know what is in every dish, what pairs with it from appetizers to sides to wine to dessert. You don't walk out and ask "who had the cheeseburger?" because the expectation on the experience is higher. You're controlling the timing at the table as well. When do you fire the main after they get the appetizer? Salad? Bread? Drinks? Which SIDE of the person do you give or remove plates? And yeah you gotta tip the bartender, the bussers, the expediters sometimes, and who knows who else.
It is still horseshit, but it's not as easy as dropping a rib basket on the table.
Be mad about the tip line on the sandwich shop menu, be mad about 20% tip on the burger joint that has a modern industrial interior and a $22 burger, don't be mad about paying out the Friday Saturday night white tablecloth servers with a tough fucking job of conducting your whole anniversary meal. You get to have a good experience once a year, they've got 15 other once a year meals to solve and it's just a regular dinner shift.
- I'd say you also shouldn't be made at the server at the $22 burger place, because they're also working hard and probably covering more tables. I used to get mad about tipping for counter service because I assumed that they were making standard minimum wage, but then I found out one of my favorite cafes was paying $5 an hour (a dollar less than tipped minimum in my state). Point is, don't get mad at anyone but the National Restaurant Association, they're fighting to make sure you're subsidizing your servers wage.
What difference is there between serving a $200 meal and a $50 one?
- Are number of items fixed in your question?
  If so, little mechanically on the waiters part.
  But, a more expensive meal comes with higher service standards. More attentive, but not intrusive. More knowledgeable about the menu. More readiness to make adjustments based on customer need.
  So in that situation you are asking for a more experienced, or more skillfully employee, and that costs more.
  
  I'd argue the skill difference matters much more in the kitchen, yet they only see a tiny percentage of the tips if they're lucky
  
  Ah see, to me their whole job is bringing me food, keeping my drink from being empty, and not being rude.
  I don’t need all the pomp, I go to a restaurant for the food.
  The funny part is you are effectively paying twice for that since the restaurant has increased the price of the food to account for all the pomp.
- I think you're looking for the difference between fine dining and nouvelle cuisine / haute cuisine. Think of it like the difference between a nice steakhouse where the server essentially takes your order and gives you a plate, and one of those Instagram dinners where they serve your dessert in hollow chocolate balls and serving is a more involved and delicate process because of the nature of the food you're serving
  
  I have a place down the road that makes guacamole in a molcajete at the table.
  That is way harder and more impressive than pouring a little hot chocolate.
  If you can scam them into paying it then more power to you though.
  
  Sounds like that server deserves a generous tip, I hope you take good care of them :)
- pretension

Each plate of food or drink is a transaction, each with expectations of quality, and expectations on the waiter to make it right.

Make what right? They're just bringing it to my table. If the food or service sucks I'm also told that you should tip anyway, so it seems like tipping isn't based on quality (and really, it isn't).

$20 is like, one entree, maybe a beverage at a cheap restaurant. $200 is probably closer to 3 entrees, 2 or 3 cocktails and an app at a moderately priced restaurant. You're crazy if you think the amount of work for those two orders (putting them into the bar/kitchen, making sure they come out correct, running them, all while juggling your other tables) is equal. I also want tipping culture to end, but the price tag scales pretty well with the amount of work being done.

That's insane. It's literally the job. Imagine applying this logic to any service industry job.
- Yeah, I know. As is said, I want tipping culture to end. We've created a system where the customer pays for servers salary by the job instead of the restaurant paying by the hour. I'm saying that running a $200 order is more work than running a $20 order, just like bagging $200 worth of groceries is more work than bagging $20 worth of groceries. A percentage tip does roughly reflect the amount of work being done, but acknowledging that isn't an endorsement of tipping culture.
It mostly bothers me when I just order 1 entree and a water. At one place that might cost $10, and at another place it might cost $30, and all the wait staff did was carry a plate from the kitchen to me in both cases.
It doesn't seem fair that the wait staff at the more expensive place gets tipped more than the less expensive place just because of an arbitrary custom.
The extra cost of the expensive meal is mostly due to ingredients, the cooking process, the location, and maaay slightly more complicated table setting.
- Yeah, I agree, but if you don't like it, take it up with the National Restaurant Association. They spend millions every year lobbying against ending the tipped wage.
Waffle House: feed a family of 4 for $20 Tip: $4 "Fancy" Restaurant: microwaved appetizer $20 Tip: $5
A percentage scales within an establishment, but not really across them.
- I'd say that varies more regionally than anything else. I live in a major northeastern city, and you could barely feed 1 person for $20, even at cheap chain restaurants. Drive 2 hours away and things get a lot more affordable, not only for food prices but also rent. In that respect, 20% actually scales with cost of living as well.