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Originally Posted by sapiens
I'm not sure that I buy the sympathy argument either.
Ideally, wait staff get the proper wage. That proper wage is made up of an hourly wage provided by the employer and a tip (based on performance) provided by the consumer. You, as the consumer, aren't making up the difference. Your contribution is part of the proper wage. You get to decide the wage paid for services based on your assessment of those services. (Rather than paying via an increase in prices whatever the employer decides to pay their employees).
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Which is all well and good, except that making sure the wait staff get a proper wage isn't my responsibility as a consumer. That's between the employee and the employer, and if the employee is unsatisfied with what their employer is paying they're free to seek employment elsewhere. Jobs at Walmart or in grocery stores are no harder to get and don't pay abysmally low wages. They may not pay good wages, exactly, but that's the nature of the beast when performing unskilled labour.
As to the argument about a tip reflecting service, I refer you to my rebuttal of Ustwo above. If the wait staff are getting paid a reasonable wage I'm free to leave a tip that directly reflects the level of service given. The wait staff, in turn, will work harder for my tip, since I'm not required to leave one. I've had some pretty poor service in my day (and tipped accordingly), but I have never once been forced to wait an hour or more for my food.
Expecting tips to meet minimum wage is fucked up. A tip is a gratuity, a gift left for above average service. If the service is poor, the tip is poor or non-existent and I don't care how little the wait staff is paid. It's not my fault.