> My prediction is that by 2025 [...]
You do know that for the rest of the world, the CURRENT system of needing tips to make up the pay that the employer does not pay is seen as disreputable, part of the infamous scammy lawless American low-pay healthcare-less work landscape, right? Employers are supposed to pay livable wages, not let random customers make up for it.
I disagree. I've never been to a strip club (another very foreign concept for me lol) but if I ever went to a establishment, I expect to pay the prices the store asks me to pay, or the waiter asking to pay. Do you also "tip" the police? It sounds as ridiculous as that for a foreigner.
> You wouldn't go into a Buddhist temple in Thailand and not leave some change at the door.
I have been to Buddhist temples in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, etc. and not left change at the door, what are you talking about? That's definitely not normal. I HAVE paid for tickets to enter temples, and bought some of the trinkets they sell, but unless explicitly told so (like in the USA) I wouldn't expect to be making significant donations for the conservation and practice of the temple. I expect religious entities to be funded by either money from their religious constituents, from the gvmt, or sell things, and that's how it seems to work in most of the world without issue.
You cannot simply say that because you are ignorant of the customs in some place, or you would never go to such a place, that people should not have to learn and abide by the customs if they do go to them.
As with prosties, so with New York restaurants.
As far as leaving coins outside temples... perhaps it was a local contribution thing, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
I haven't, but if you asked me if I think service workers should be paid more like regular salaried workers or more like prostitutes, I'd pick the former over the latter.
Having worked in the service industry, I usually tip 25-30%, per drink or per meal. But here's the relevant point: When I encounter a place that doesn't allow tipping, I still want to tip, and make sure to tip, because it's for the worker. I absolutely loathe the new system that's come into trendy restaurants in Seattle where gratuity is supposedly included. That's a skinflint way for a restaurant to raise their prices and assure you that their workers are being paid, without you as the customer having any say (or direct contact) with the workers. You may put up QR code menus and try to isolate the service staff from the customers, and eliminate tipping, but does that make happier employees? Does it make happier customers?
Tipping serves several purposes. One of them is to get the employees to give customers who tip well better service. Sometimes at the expense of an extra ounce from a whisky bottle, sometimes just with more personal care. The insertion of the management into the situation - trying to say it's good for customers and employees - strikes me as a very false, self-serving line of bullshit. And from everyone I know in the service industry, it seems like it quickly turns into a racket against them as well.
My prediction is that by 2025, places that eliminated tipping will be seen as just as infamous as any of the scammy disruptors of the tech industry in the 2010s; the practice of banning tips will be seen as disreputable, and life will return to its natural equilibrium where customers pay extra for good service.