Tips are nothing but a demeaning way to tell low-status workers that the value of their time is arbitrary and their livelihood is always subject to whim. Do you tip your doctor? Do you tip anyone with a high-status job? Of course not.
Tipping should just be abolished. Set a price and charge it. Pay people fairly and consistently so they can feel secure and plan for the future. Anything else is just sneaky.
What do you think would happen if tips were abolished? The owner would increase their wage a tiny bit. Who do you think will be working that job then?
It's pretty easy to see whether or not service is a well-paid job: do high-status people do it, and do people make a career of it (in general). And the answer is no. people do it when they're young and can't do anything else, and it burns them out. Few people stay in service. Yes, you can cherry-pick some good jobs out of service, but in general, people do it because they can't do something else... or do it while doing something else (like study).
I imagine that if you abolished tips, then the service sector would be like all those other sectors without tips, or like all those service sectors in all those other countries without tips, i.e. just another job and completely normal. But a lot fairer.
http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-...