I think the issue in the US is that it has only been tried at a store level rather than at a state or country level.

The whole west coast and many major cities in the US have eliminated the lower tipped minimum wages.

But the societal norm is to still expect to tip 15% (although some would say 20%) in tips.

Eh, service in Australia is generally not particularly great. This is often a function of staffing though, since wages are expensive (national minimum wage $19.84/hr) and many Australian restaurants consequently either operate with a skeleton staff, pay under the table (migrants/students are brutally exploited), or both.

Japan, on the other hand, has incredible service and absolutely no tips.

> We pay our wait staff fair and reasonable rates (legally mandated btw).

Most people I know in Melbourne who worked in restaurants said they got less than minimum wage with cash in hand. Almost all these people were on a working holiday visa or students.

Yeesh. I should've said that it was tried in the US and didn't catch on. Not having a tipping culture to begin with is great, but the hard part is to switch from tipping to not tipping without legislating it.

Never having a tipping culture is a much different thing than having to transition from one that tips to one that does not. Did Australia have tips then do away with them at some point? If so, how did they pull it off?

France used to have tips, which became a service fee, and is now transparent in the final price.

Interestingly waiters tend to ask Americans for tips in France, while they don’t expect anything from Europeans, that’s because American tourists tip when they travel there.

The solution is to stop tipping.