California says restaurants must bake all of their add-on fees into menu prices
California says restaurants must bake all of their add-on fees into menu prices
Need this nationwide. I hate having fees added on to the price of what I'm ordering.
Do it like in Europe. Prices are all inclusive, any kind of tip is just a thank you for outstanding service, and not a necessity so the waitress won't starve.
It is a sales business with service, like buying clothes. Can you imagine having to tip the salesperson in a boutique?
It really depends on the country. France and Belgium, as you wrote. Germany, they expect a tip and look at you angry if you don't. Italy, they add a service charge at the end that is nowhete advertised. Turkey, they invent a random price at the end, complaints only taken if you're local. (I'm slightly exaggerating)
In Germany it's typical to do so just to make the change easier, you might catch an angry glance by making them make small change.
Italy will list a coperto or servizio on the menu.
Italy, they add a service charge at the end that is nowhete advertised.
It's called the Pane & Coperto (or just Coperto Fee) and typically amounts to a cover charge to enter, regardless of what you order.
Honestly not the worst way to run a restaurant, given that every table costs some baseline amount of labor and resources to tend.
In Belgium and in France tips are expected but they are a bonus, not to have a living wage though.
Same in colombia. The price advertised is the price you pay. No need to calculate the tax in your head in the grocery store, just add everything and you’re golden.
I've seen tip jars in botique clothing and other non-food related shops for some time now in the US.
So the disease is already spreading? Yuck.
We need European pricing where the price is the price. I would go as far as making asking for a tip illegal too. Have restaurants put on their menu that prices include the tip. Raise minimum wage for restaurant workers.
And not just for restaurants, everything, from airline tickets to concert tickets, etc.
I think clear signage and message on the bill indicating "tipping is optional, service charges is included in the menu price" should suffice.
Making tipping illegal goes too far, but I am okay with implementing it for couple decades, in order to correct a bad habit.
OP said “asking for a tip”. If I want to tip a particularly good server experience, everyone should be free to do so. But asking for it, and it comes to mind those places that explicitly stipulate that 10% is minimum mandatory tipping, should be illegal. That's a hidden fee, not a tip.
Agreed. Though I was at the UPS store and they had a tip jar.
I was like: who the heck tips at the UPS store?
Then we are back to where we started where tipping is a guild riddled demand
Pay waiting staff a livable wage and include that in the price, no tipping
People can't let go of tipping. A few restaurants near me tried it and ended up closing.
Tipping isn't just a part of culture but it also breaks up the spend for the consumer. You commit to a $15 burger now, then the $3 of tip later. Integrating the tips with the cost makes it seem like everything is more expensive and also makes it not optional for how much you give.
Weave backed ourselves into a corner for tipping. Restaurants may be convinced to pay a livable wage. But they're never going to pay the servers what they can actually make in tips.
I was about 5 years into IT, My girlfriend was waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday. Most days she made more than I did. And depending on how bad they 'adjusted' their tax claims ...
That said, some days she did basically pay to work there.
I suspect if you ask the vast majority of wait staff if they would like to be paid and livable wage or continue a tip-based system they want to stay tip based.
I think that's very dependent on age. When I was in my early twenties, an inconsistent gig with the potential for high tips was very appealing. When I got into my late twenties/early thirties I moved over to events and catering because they offered a high hourly wage with predictable(ish) hours. If the restaurants pay well enough they'll be able to find people.
The real problem will be vacation towns. There are some places where most of the restaurants and bars close in the off-season. The staff will work their asses off through the spring and summer, then use their tips to live the rest of the year. For some of these towns, even if the restaurant staff wanted to pick up a job in the off-season, they'd need to drive two hours just to find a part-time gig at Target. I really want tipping to end, but I'm not sure what would happen to these places. The seasonal restaurants could pay more, but I'm not sure they could offer enough to subsidize their staff for half the year.
It's also really hard work. Waiting tables at a busy restaurant was by far the most mentally exhausting job I've ever had.
Good for her, but arguably it's not supposed to be a high paying job. A living wage, sure, but higher than a job that you presumably studied for and required relatively uncommon knowledge seems wrong.
So I guess the answer is no, we wouldn't expect restaurants to work out how much people get paid in tips and match it, it would be a liveable wage and if the current workers don't like it they would leave.
I don't know that your girlfriend getting bankrolled is common across the industry either, tips rely on high traffic and customers with big pockets. Most wait staff don't brag about how rich they are.
But they’re never going to pay the servers what they can actually make in tips
Im not sure I believe that. I mean, I’ve also known people who said the same things, so clearly there are people who really make out. However I suspect this is highly variable and there are even more just scraping by. I’m sure it greatly depend on the restaurant and the clientele, as well as the actual effort, and I’m sure it highly depends on looks. That 18yr old hottie at the local hot spot may rake it in, but the elderly matron at the local diner works just as hard but with less opportunity
Everyone talks about tips being a reward for good service but tips are almost never proportional to service
Yeah, tipping is pretty messed up. In a lot of states, wait staff are exempt from the minimum wage because they're expected to treat tips (which are notoriously unreliable) as part of their salary.
Generally, as here in CO, there is still a minimum wage for staff that are regularly tipped, it's just lower. I believe it's also (again, as here) generally required that any time the tipping doesn't make up the difference, companies are required to make it up instead.
That being said, it's basically a way to advertise much lower prices than they actually charge. Roles that often get tipped tend to make pretty good money, and companies would basically never want to pay that much for those roles (especially when they are used to paying even less than minimum wage).
The restaurant owner arguments are all super weak as usual.
"Menu prices will rise!"
No shit, but everyone was already paying the prices but now you can't just surprise patrons with the increase.
"There will be pullback. People will lose jobs and hours!"
Doubtful but even if true, that means that they knew they were lying to customers and clawing extra charges that they wouldn't know about already.
"'They' are thinking restaurants will absorb the costs"
Not exactly but they will have to compete with pricing as it should be.
They're just trying to get away with playing the same game Telcos have gotten away with for far too many decades.
"Menu prices will rise!"
nothing a bunch of two-bit con artists MBAs hate more than an informed mark customer.
The actual good businesses run by good people will not suffer by this. only those that relied on duping their customers.
That's what pisses me off, if the consumer knows what they'll actually have to pay they won't buy.
They are arguing that they should be able to lie to the consumer and trick them. They think the consumer shouldn't be informed to make a decision on what is right for them. And once again, they are putting the business before the customer.
What are the service charges that are being put on after the fact? From this I'm assuming it's separate from the customary tip and any sales tax.
Many restaurants have started adding a "service charge" that is not a tip in addition to menu prices. It's super fucking shady. There is rarely an signage indicating the charge, relying of the hostesses to inform you. It isn't always clear on the itemized bill they hand you, since it's grouped down with the tax. It's not the standard gratuity added for large groups. There is a restaurant near me that suddenly started adding this kind of charge. They did not notify me when I sat down and I didn't see any indication of it on the itemized bill and only noticed when calculating the tip, after they'd run my card. I made a huge stink about it because it's a fucking scam and they did discount my bill, but they refused to remove the service charge. I liked their food, but that was the last time I visited and I stopped recommending them.
I think what really kicked this off is that restaurants started putting surcharges on bills by directly passes specific legal requirement costs directly to the customers without increasing their menu prices. For example, now that servers get some health benefits in SF, they'll have a surcharge that says something like "SF Mandate" or "SF Health Surcharge".
This would also cover stuff like to go order surcharges where some places are charging more for takeout sort of like Doordash or Grubhub do, except of course, you're picking it up yourself.
I do wonder how/if places with some more traditional surcharges are going to comply now. For example pizza places charging delivery fees.
Places will still be able to get away with "X% gratuity added to bill for Y seats (though I've seen some places do it for any number of people, including 1)" because that's optional, even if they put it on your bill because you've always been able to make them remove it.
It is like on most people's cell phone bills in the US. You'll see stuff like "FCC surcharge" which is the company passing their FCC regulatory fees directly to the customer without changing their advertised prices for a plan, E911 fees for 911 services, various taxes levied on the company but not the consumer are also passed to the customer.
The purpose is to have restaurants take these fees/taxes/whatever and make them build those costs of doing business directly into their advertised pricing on their menus. Companies don't like this because they can advertise cheaper prices and psychologically the customer doesn't usually think or even know about the extra surcharges, companies can set those surprise charges to whatever they want (they aren't regulated) and they do not have to really compete with those prices wherever they advertise (menus, flyers, etc.) thus driving them down for the consumer.
One step closer to the fucking common sense of the rest of the world where the price you see for something is the price you actually pay. Nobody cares about a number that's mathematically related to the price they have to pay, just tell me.
I'd really love it if they did like some countries and added the sales tax(es) to the sticker price in stores too
There are a lot of things I wished they did similar to other countries such as VAT. Hiding all these fees seems deceptive from both the business and the govt sneaking in their taxes.
Fees are predatory on people who are swayed by lower advertised cost. Basically, they are extorting the way many people's brains work. It's just another way to keep the not rich from ever catching up. Not just in dollars, but time. If you try to price compare, you have to sink a ton of time into uncovering all the fees. The rich just don't have to worry about that. So it ends up as a time tax.
It's called a Bait and Switch and is a form of Fraud.
It's just that in the US, the grey area between Fraud and "Sharp business practice" is legally way broader than the rest of the Developed World.
Kudos to California to have forces some clarification on at least this one form of misrepresentation/false-advertising/fraud.
I agree that these fees are bad and I hate them, but couldn't you make the opposite argument that they serve as a (money) tax on the rich? Poor people will take the time to shop around for the best deal, whereas rich people will simply pay whatever for the product they want. Therefore hidden fees disproportionately are paid by the rich.
Genuinely poor people rarelly have the time to shop around.
It is bad if you think a person's value of their own time isn't reduced to market dynamics. Yes the rich pay a cost/tax for the convenience, but that is because their time is valued more by the market. Poor people are compensated less for their time and that seems to make it "okay" to ask poor people to spend more time to deal with less honest business practices. If you think their free time is as "valuable" as anyone else's then this is offensive.
No, it’s always taking advantage of the ignorant or the hurried, regardless whether they can afford it. I shouldn’t require extra steps to avoid being ripped off
Yeah how is this not me paying for everyone else's guac at Chipotle when I don't want it?
Great, now do tipping next.
Article is about California, where tipped employees must be paid minimum wage same as everyone else
"If it's in the core price of the menu, there will be a pullback" in patrons' spending, she told NPR shortly before the attorney general released the guidelines. "There are some people, I think, that are hoping that the restaurants will just absorb that cost, because we've seen people say, 'Oh, it's too expensive with the service charge.' "
If you add bullshit charges that are not added into the price on the menu, I don't return ever. So you may lose a couple patrons initially but they'll be back once they understand that is the general price. You will also get me back since there is no more possibility of bullshit charges.
Oh, so you mean people won't order your food if they know what the real price is? Well... fuck you
More that sticker shock will keep people from ordering an appetizer with a main meal if everything is $2-3 more expensive than when they last visited
This might be a weird question but when people tip for a good service, what exactly is good service?
If I go to a restaurant I expect them to take my order, bring me the food and when I'm done bring me the check. That's it. I want nothing else from them. Should I tip them for not spitting in my food or not stumbling and throwing it all over my clothes?
Should I tip them for not spitting in my food or not stumbling and throwing it all over my clothes?
In the US, yes. Tipping here is insane.
Seems especially true where you tip before being served.
I usually don't tip, as I live in a country where people don't depend on the tip. And if they got a problem with that, they can take it up with management. I am not their employer. Also, I don't get extra money for simply doing my job as well.
But there are rare occasions, when I do. And that's if I see that someone has gone unexpected "extra" lenghts, which can not usually be expected from doing the job.
For example, in an italian restaurant my partner and I ordered some noodle dishes. We were there often, so we didn't expect anything unusual. However, that day, the waiter just brought us some Parmesan cheese with the advice it tastes better with it and we shouldn't be shy to ask for it. That was very forthcoming and justified a tip.
On another occasion, when my partner had a hospital stay, we ordered some pizza. We did it once or twice, as the treatment took several weeks. Usually I went down to the building entrance and received the order. One day, there was an awesome delivery guy who took it up on himself to bring it to us to the patient room. We were very impressed. I remember that my partner said we should shower him in money, haha. We certainly gave him a nice tip.
If I go to a restaurant I expect them to take my order, bring me the food and when I’m done bring me the check. That’s it.
I've been to a Michelin Star restaurant where a pair of waiters were constantly hovering over your table to clean it and refill drinks and offer provide conversation.
The chef comes by and makes a presentation of every dish (the bananas foster was practically a magic act, the way they assembled the meal and then light it on fire). The staff practically wingman for you, if you've got a date. Everyone is beautiful and charming.
But that was something like $300/person just for the table, with 20% gratuity as a fixed fee on the final bill.
There are lots of restaurants that don't charge through the nose for the meal but offer comparable service. Charming friendly waiters who weedle your favorite food and give excellent recommendations. Staff that sing or make clever jokes or entertain small children or share a cocktail with you at the table. I know a few high end restaurants in Houston that will try to pouch waiters from one another because they're friends with particularly wealthy regulars.
You see less of that now (at least in the states) because individual waiters are expected to cover more tables, turnover is more important than relationship building, and the quality of food has taken a real nosedive as we replace professional chefs with meals made in microwaves.
Now a tip is much more like a Coperto - a cover charge for seating - than gratuity for exceptional service.
For me it usually about timeliness (I don't know if that's a word but it makes sense to me) and if our drinks a nearing empty they ask if we would like another rather than having to spend five mins trying to flag some one done.
Simply doing the job quickly and professionally which for me makes my meal a little bit better. Also this is much more achievable for the staff if the restaurant has enough staff.
My tip heavily depends on how full my water glass is kept and how long my dishes sit in front of me before they're cleared.
I don't need chit chat or being flirted with, I just need my meal in a prompt and courteous manner, that's worthy of 15-20% IMO.
Why is the price you put on a full water glass dependent on whether you got an expensive steak vs a cheaper pasta dish though? This is why percentages are so dumb.
So literally you say it's okay to pay extra for a server to do their job, because the restaurant isn't paying them enough?
Hells no. I'm all for prohibition on tipping, because it WILL be abused. Just pay servers a normal salary like everyone else
Friendly, prompt with explanations for delays and either a remedy or some form of alleviation of the disappointment, good recommendations/feedback on food, etc. a big one for me personally is coming over only when you notice something is needed (drink low, people looking around, etc )
I'll tip if someone does those kinds of things as it's going above the basics I normally require
Good service is anything outside what you just said. Did you need to ask for any changes/ substitutions? Did you have an allergy they had to accommodate? Are you on a rush and they brought it out quickly for you? Are you splitting the bill? Are there children in your party? Did anyone leave a mess or did a drink spill? Were they extra helpful with recommendations? All these merit a tip. If they do exactly as you said and you were an easy customer, no tip needed (assuming you're in a country where tipping isn't customary)
Did you need to ask for any changes/ substitutions?
Waiter writes that down, forwards it to kitchen. That can be expected, imo. Kitchen doesn't get your tip.
Did you have an allergy they had to accommodate?
Lol, "thank you for not killing me, here is a tip". At least it can be expected to be informed about allergies. Regarding subsitutions, see above.
Minnesota is currently working on a similar law to stop surcharges and just have a final price.
Isn't it fun how "the price should just be the price" makes you a filthy commie in 2024?
it's always a struggle between freedom TO vs freedom FROM
Honestly i never see any resistance to these kinds of steps forward
I do, but I also live in Bible Belt eagle fuckin rural America. Most of the people in my "city" live for every bad idea you can muster -
Like how practically half of this city exists explicitly on the far side of the city line, so they can dodge taxes while using the city's infrastructure to get around (and then bitch about the state of the city's infrastructure cause of course they do.)
I realize when I go out for a special event, like I did Friday night to see Harry Connick, Jr. play with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall that I wasn't going to quibble about costs.
However, after the non-optional 18% "gratuity", they also had an additional "server" tip field. Ha, GFY, bitches!
My new favorite is a hotel tax I just saw today which conveniently isn't included in the room rate.
This has been the case forever. Itemizing receipts for hotels is always a pain and at least my company's expense tool has buttons for more than 7 different tax fields each night. It's like filling out a whole spreadsheet it the nightly rate varies.
Unfortunately, govt is the cause of that, not the solution. Taxes are always separate since they vary by location and are defined by the local govt. but yes it’s also a problem when that local govt wants to join in on fleecing the tourists, and it’s by convention not part of the price
Yeah, but tax can always be figured into the presented price of things if businesses are required to do so.
That's pretty much the point of this type of legislation. Of course you need legislators who, y'know, vote to legislate in this way.
Yeah. It would be really convenient to calculate if the hotels just stood around in one spot for years so the taxes didn't change every time someone got a room, but with them constantly on the move who could predict anything?
4oz smashed patty $17
Add bun $1
Add cheese $2-$4
Add $1: lettuce, tomato, onion
Add $3: grilled onion, any sauce
Add $7: sauteed onionz melted cheese, sauce +bechamel, fried egg, kimchi
Add $17: salmon
On the tipping subject... it is just another way the well off designed long ago, to reinforce that the working class worked for them. Originally it was the business owner that they were targeting, to make sure they stayed dependent on the good graces of the elite. After all, back then most businesses were mom and pop shops. Now it is just out of controll, and used to increase profit margins as well as extract more cash from people who have trouble realizing the full cost.
Yeah, Cali can shut its mouth. Tourists, look at your resort bill or hotel bill next time you pay. See if everything was baked into advertised price.
Only fees that are entirely optional — like leaving a tip for staff — can be left out of the posted price.
How do you say you’ve never worked as a server without saying you’ve never worked as a server?
Edit: I think there’s a misunderstanding. I’m commenting on describing tips as “entirely optional.” If you can’t afford to tip, don’t eat at a restaurant. Servers are paid below minimum wage because they receive tips.
Second edit: My bad. NY has a tip allowance, and that’s where I waited. I didn’t know it varied so greatly from state to state. California does, in fact, pay their servers $16 per hour minimum.
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/minimum-wage-tipped-employees-by-state/
Restaurants should be forced to pay their workers a living wage, which is how it works in developed countries. And paying below minimum wage should be illegal.
it's such a fucking joke that they're allowed to pay like $2/hr because they'll make it up in tips. just because customers are nice doesn't mean the employer should get off the hook like that. even the joke federal minimum wage is fuck all, that's like 1-2 sides at a decent restaurant
Agreed. Each state differs on tip allowance. In NY, minimum wage is $15 per hour with a $5 tip allowance. That means employers can pay $10 per hour, expecting servers to make at least $5 per hour in tips. If it’s a slow morning of “coffee only paper readers,” it’s easy to come up short of minimum wage for some hours.
Work a Sunday brunch shift and watch the raft of churchies leave nothing but condescending notes, if anything.
Awful. Almost as gross as those fake half bills with scripture on the back.
Holy shit. They give god 10% of their income. This server is “asking” for 18% of the price of their bill. They’re not even remotely the same thing.
I’m generally against tipping, but still do it. I’m way against illogical comparisons like this though.
Holy snark aside... 18% preprinted on the bill? That brunch better included a BJ then. And yes, I'm European.
Rude comment aside, at least that restaurant would have accurate pricing in cali now.
i thought you weren't meant to use the lord's name in vain
It gets worse than that.
Some of them leave these on the table. Carefully concealing the deception, of course.
That's not even the only type they have available to them:
Servers are paid below minimum wage because they receive tips.
Not true everywhere. For instance Washington requires servers be paid the full minimum wage of $16.28/hr before tips.
I honestly thought all states used a tip allowance. Thanks for the info! You prompted me to look up some more about it. Turns out it varies wildly from state to state. Most states pay Federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour if they don’t make tips, or $2.13 per hour if they do.
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/minimum-wage-tipped-employees-by-state/
California, ie the state this fucking article is about, also mandates the full minimum wage for servers.
Don't take the downvotes too seriously. Your original point was succinct and poignant. On average, lemmy bombs on anyone going against the popular stance. A whole lot of paper activism goes on here.
Your point is valid. Not tipping because "fuck the man" only serves to hurt the servers. From a moral consumer standpoint, there's no winning. You either cut out restaurants entirely, which still fucks the wait staff, or you tip high and hope enough of it ends up in the their pockets.
I’m not offended by downvotes, but usually if I’m downvoted there are comments that correlate so I can understand the alternative perspective. Most of the comments in response were servers at first, so I edited for clarity thinking it was a misunderstanding. It took several comments for me to learn that California pays their servers a decent minimum wage.
I'm downvoting because he's wrong about servers getting paid below minimum wage in California. That's true in his shithole state but not ours.
Wrong move. They should have outlawed tipping too. No more hiring for shit wages and leaving adequate compensation up to chance. Bump up the menu price and pay your staff an enticing salary.
Agreed. I hate tipping. Some tippers will hate for tipping to go away because they can use their charisma to make a lot of money. More power to them but tipping is just a way for these businesses to keep their labor low. Many other countries don't have tipping and can still have restaurants. For some reason the US needs tipping to be able to have restaurants.
The funny thing is even if restaurants are forced to pay a living wage and not have tips as a subsidy, these servers would actually still be able to do that. Maybe not AS much as before, but between that and an actual living wage is bet they still would come out ahead lol
A restaurant in my area recently put up signs saying they pay their staff a living wage, raised prices, and forbaid tips. More like this, please.
Meanwhile, most places in London pay at least the minimum wage (not lower for waitstaff, but not necessarily living wage) and tack on an optional 12-20% service charge, and don’t give it to staff.
You have to determine if the service charge goes to staff, awkwardly refuse the service charge, and (optionally) tip your waitstaff in cash (and if you do, ask they split it with back of house)
The times we’ve done it seems to make the staff happy. Still a shit thing to do.
A few places in Seattle experimented with different ways to go tipping when the city raised the minimum wage across the board without making an exception for tipped wages. A few forbade tipping a few had a standardized tip percentage. A few had a surcharge added on. Many made it clear how they did it. Shitheads like Tom Douglas did not make it clear and added a 4% charge on the bill noting that it was a living wage fee. I don't go to the ones who were shady about it. Largely it has all returned to standard typing. There are a few coffee shops like Seattle Coffee Works and an ice cream shop (Mollie Moon's) that do not allow tips.
They won't make nearly as much as they did with tipping. I expect either tipping to come back to that place or the servers to leave for somewhere better.
Agreed, but let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good here.
Agreed, but overall a good move to address separate and much simpler issue of predatory pricing (for the customer)
Heading to mother's day lunch right now, set menu for $89 per person. Except it's a 10% surcharge on Sundays, the only day that mother's day is, so that price isnt really true at all.
This in Aus which I'd normally argue has better common-sense policies such as requiring sales tax in the menu price
I'm not a California resident but once on a visit I ate at a place. Paid the bill. No tip. Left. The shopkeeper chased me on the street to catch up and ask why I didn't tip, and wasn't the food good, etc. Embarrassed, I was with a friend who is a resident.. I told her yes it was fine. "Then why no tip?!" Internally: Because it's a tip? I didnt get some kind of exceptional service there. If anything they left us alone really. So what was I tipping for exactly? why not just charge a different price, etc. Externally: "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know"
Yeah, but you know how the system works, so you intentionally stiffed someone out of their income. Regardless of if the system is correct or just it exists and you don't get to just opt out without being a gigantic asshole.
Definately how it should be, but staff at most places hate that idea. They know they're making way over what they should be for the job, and they like not reporting all their earnings on taxes.
You don't need to ban tipping. Several countries don't have a tipping culture and that's because the waiters are paid adequately for their work. Tipping is seen as a bonus after exceptionally good service.
The US should raise the minimum wage for restaurant workers and not make it the customer's responsibility to make sure the waiter can pay their rent.
Tipping culture has metastasized in the US. It won't go away on its own.
Not disagreeing, just providing a counterpoint.
Take your basic non super fancy restaurant, dinner for two with appetizers, entrees, desserts, a two rounds of drinks will probably be $100ish. And that table of two will be there for an hour. Assuming server gets 20% tip average, that's $20 for the table. An average server will have four tables in their sections. That means if the restaurant is full, they are making $80 an hour in tips. They will get to keep 60% to 80% of that, the rest going in a tip pool that benefits kitchen staff, bussers, barbacks, etc. But they'll still be making pretty good money.
Of course if the restaurant is empty or they only have one or two tables with people seated, they are making less.
The problem comes that if you get rid of this system, there's a lot of financial risk for the restaurant owner. Currently they don't have to pay the server or the staff very much, most of their compensation comes from tips, meaning there is less risk to them keeping the restaurant fully staffed if it's not going to be busy. If you pay all these people are constant hourly, now there is risk on the restaurant owner in terms of staffing. Bring on too many staff when it's quiet and they will lose a bundle. Don't bring on enough staff when it's busy and those people don't have a financial incentive to bust their ass. It also becomes solely their job to ensure quality, because the server that spends half the time on their phone in the back room is making the same money as the server who is attentive to their tables. It also means less risk for hiring an inexperienced server, because if the server does a bad job they just won't make good tips.
All that said, I agree something has to change. I think perhaps one answer would be a law requiring that each restaurant put 15% of gross receipts into a virtual tip pool. That way they aren't paying through the nose to staff and empty restaurant, there would be a line item on the check like 'automatic gratuity paid the staff $whatever on this check, further tipping is optional'.
Risk for the business owner, what a concept. The workers aren't there to defray risks for an owner, they're doing a job. If the restaurant founder wants to push risk to their employees, make it a coop, then they can share in the profits as well as the risk.
if they don't make enough tips to reach minimum wage, the employer still has to pay
Why on earth would someone go out for dinner, have two starters, and then jump to dessert? 😂