In other words, the value of service is a function of the cost of the items. The supposed transparency of tipping is tainted by the opaqueness of everything else...
>>But tips are the most transparent part of restaurant pricing.
How and why are tips considered a part of 'pricing'?
Here in my country(India) I don't tip anybody, unless service delivered is exceptional. That is very important, because for an incentive to remain an incentive, it must be paid only when good work is done. Else it looses its value. Mandatory tips don't motivate servers, it just makes them complacent that they can do job as usual while they will be tipped anyway.
If tips are compulsory, they should make it a part of the bill. Something like 'Added 15% tip' and ask us to pay it as a part of the bill.
In such cases fast food restaurants will flourish, because no one wants to pay somebody a reward just for doing their job, like everybody does their job.
And please don't tell me how difficult servers are having it. Because every person who is working to make a living is having it difficult a way or the other. I work many hours in a month fire fighting, attending calls, working on late night issues, and sprinting towards deadlines. But I'm assumed to be OK with all that without being paid. I don't go around asking for tips.
Tip is not longer a tip when its mandatory, its more like service charges. I am OK with that, And will try to avoid such restaurants because I see no point in paying a service charge, when I can carry my food to the table.
You are welcome to call US "tips" something other than "tips" because you object to the strained definition. What you're not welcome to do is dine in a US restaurant where tipping is expected and not pay the tip because of that semantic argument. Your last sentence expresses the correct tactic for handling this problem: don't dine out in the US.
US tips are not simply an incentive to provide extraordinary service, full stop.
