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Originally Posted by shakran
.....It's like any other industry in this country. People will pay the minimum they have to in order to get the goods and services they want. Waiters aren't running to the tire shop asking if they can pay $200 over list price because, gee, the guys on the factory floor making the tires aren't all rich and would like a little extra in their wallet. You don't go into best buy and try talk them up from the pricetag.
Waiters as a group have offered themselves to restaurants for $2-ish an hour. Restaurants naturally aren't going to say "Oh nonono, here, have $80,000 a year and a company car" if they don't have to......
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SInce, in my experience, and in the experience of almost everyone else who does the job, your statements above are not accurate....people don't "pay the minimum" in the US when it comes to tipping waiter and waitresses, the average tip would not be 19 percent in the market that I work in, if that were true....and waiters don't offer themselves "for 2-ish an hour", the wage exists by law, because of the investment in lobbying done to legislatures who make the labor laws by well funded restaurant business trade groups.
The waiters accept the jobs because your premise about people "paying the minimum", in the way that they tip for service, at least among US patrons, is not accurate. So it works, and those who refuse to go along with it are subsidized by patrons who "get it", and appreciate what they are getting enough to pay to offset the negative impact to waitstaff income of restaurant owners lobbying to keep legal wage minimums so low, and from patrons with more negative attitudes about tipping, or who are uninformed.
Those who tip less than average and the restaurant owners are "free riders" in this system. The system itself is a competitive, expected development of a capitalistic system in a market of predominantly generous, considerate and appreciative consumers. Waitstaff participates on the basis of personal ability and appeal, with the added factors common to the owners, picking the right location and demographics. The best waiters working at the most highly rated and most patronized businesses make the most money.
Some people know to tip on the total amount of the original prices of the food and drink served to them, and some don't. Enough do know to offset the impact of the ones who don't know or refuse to accept it.