If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to go to a restaurant. This is not a political statement, it's just the truth.

When I was 16 I waited tables for 3 years as a job to pay for college. I made minimum wage (which was $3.35 an hour) and my wages+tips were guaranteed to be $7.25 an hour (minimum wage), or the restaurant had to pay the difference. <br><br>Restaurants are designed to pay servers minimum wage, and restaurants are charged by the government a percentage of their payroll tax that assumes a 15% tip. The servers pay tax on tips received, but the owner also has to pay payroll tax on tips that the server didn't receive/didn't report. <br><br>I believe that the concept of tipping is bullshit, and that every server should be paid a living wage. I believe every worker should be paid a living wage, but that's a different topic. <br><br>The reality is that tipping is baked into the way that restaurants are run, and if you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat at a restaurant. <br><br>I'm not saying you should tip me 25%, but 0% tips cause servers to lose money, and this is bullshit. I had tables where the people were clearly poor, but still tried to cancel the tip by saying they were Christians who didn't believe in tipping, or that they were Freedom Fighters who didn't believe in tipping because "it was slavery." They obviously didn't realize that I was not making a living wage, and that their lack of a tip meant that I was losing money by serving them. <br><br>It is your choice to go to college, join the military, or pursue a trade. If you choose to pursue a trade where tips are required, you agree to the terms of that trade as it is practiced. This is not "minimum wage as a base and tips cause you to make more". This is "you pay your employees minimum wage, but they get tipped a lot, and you have to pay payroll tax on that tip". <br><br>I don't believe that restaurants should be forced to pay their employees more/move away from tipping. I do believe that if you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat at a restaurant.