If the tip was mandatory, so too should the good and proper service that it pays for. Clearly, that's never the case, especially when wait staff attitudes include threats of food tampering.
Most times and for most people when patrons enjoy their meal, it's because they enjoyed their meal. The lion's share of the tip rightfully belongs to the kitchen staff.
When was the last time anyone chose a place because of the wait staff?
I'm sure setting the table, bringing the drinks and meals, refiling the water glasses, punching up the cash register, and all the while presenting a positive yet unobtrusive attitude require top-flight Ph.D.s these days, and most restaurant patrons should be just grateful for the uncanny superhuman acumen of wait staff, but honestly, get over yourselves. If there weren't ten people in line waiting to take your sub-par paying job because it requires the skills of a ten year old, restaurant owners would compete to pay you better the same way they compete for chefs.
Tipping is the most asinine aspect of the restaurant industry because it's predicated on the assumption that patrons should not expect good and proper service as the norm. What if every industry were like that?
Need a good mechanic? How about a good dentist, defense lawyer, plastic surgeon, or oncologist? Or how about tipping the turkey farmer and processor for your delicious Thanksgiving turkey, and especially for not, you know, tampering with your food?
Besides, the places paying sub-par are probably not places renowned for their service to begin with, and if your wait skills and/or other skills are that good, why are you working in a sub-par paying establishment?
Ultimately, the relevant "tip" here is, when in Bethlehem, stick to fast food and self-serve because Bethlehem cops are no doubt generously "tipped" by its sub-par paying establishments to enforce their tipping "mandates".
Most times and for most people when patrons enjoy their meal, it's because they enjoyed their meal. The lion's share of the tip rightfully belongs to the kitchen staff.
When was the last time anyone chose a place because of the wait staff?
I'm sure setting the table, bringing the drinks and meals, refiling the water glasses, punching up the cash register, and all the while presenting a positive yet unobtrusive attitude require top-flight Ph.D.s these days, and most restaurant patrons should be just grateful for the uncanny superhuman acumen of wait staff, but honestly, get over yourselves. If there weren't ten people in line waiting to take your sub-par paying job because it requires the skills of a ten year old, restaurant owners would compete to pay you better the same way they compete for chefs.
Tipping is the most asinine aspect of the restaurant industry because it's predicated on the assumption that patrons should not expect good and proper service as the norm. What if every industry were like that?
Need a good mechanic? How about a good dentist, defense lawyer, plastic surgeon, or oncologist? Or how about tipping the turkey farmer and processor for your delicious Thanksgiving turkey, and especially for not, you know, tampering with your food?
Besides, the places paying sub-par are probably not places renowned for their service to begin with, and if your wait skills and/or other skills are that good, why are you working in a sub-par paying establishment?
Ultimately, the relevant "tip" here is, when in Bethlehem, stick to fast food and self-serve because Bethlehem cops are no doubt generously "tipped" by its sub-par paying establishments to enforce their tipping "mandates".