Here's what I gather from the discussion so far:
Employers' are screwing over their employees by paying them less than minimum wage and the customers are expected to bear the burden.
Being from a place where tipping is an exception rather than a norm, I don't get how the system got so fucked up. It isn't the employee's fault, but it isn't the customer's fault either and yet, as far as I can see, the expectation is that the customer would continue to regard it as a moral obligation and keep on bearing the burden? If money is being stolen from the employee's pocket, then it is the employer doing the stealing. For someone who is accustomed to thinking that tipping is the extra appreciation given when the service is better than expected and to expect that he'd have to pay only the advertised amount, having to pay 20% extra with every meal is not an obligation that goes down easy.
Employers' are screwing over their employees by paying them less than minimum wage and the customers are expected to bear the burden.
Being from a place where tipping is an exception rather than a norm, I don't get how the system got so fucked up. It isn't the employee's fault, but it isn't the customer's fault either and yet, as far as I can see, the expectation is that the customer would continue to regard it as a moral obligation and keep on bearing the burden? If money is being stolen from the employee's pocket, then it is the employer doing the stealing. For someone who is accustomed to thinking that tipping is the extra appreciation given when the service is better than expected and to expect that he'd have to pay only the advertised amount, having to pay 20% extra with every meal is not an obligation that goes down easy.
