Excerpt from the article:
Schenker says that after his years in the service industry, he has watched tipping evolve into a major part of his pay.
“If there is some means of tipping that’s available to you, that should signal to you that workers there aren’t being paid enough,” says Schenker. “Tipping is sort of an acknowledgment of that fact.”
To Schenker, customers who don’t tip are not understanding that businesses treat tips as a baked-in part of workers’ wages.
“They subsidize lower prices by paying employees less,” he says. “If you aren’t tipping, you are taking advantage of that labor.”
He was so close… Especially for someone who says himself does not make much money.
And in the article, the barista mentioned not making more than $30,000 a year. If minimum wage were higher, around $15-$20 then the barista would make more than $30,000 a year with no awkward tipping moments. Sounds reform within the current system with no tipping and “scraping the whole system”. No please don’t complain that my latte cost more, that’s been a straw man since the beginning of minimum wage.