Because everyone in the restaurant industry systematically underestimates tip income. It’s a pretty corrupt industry by modern standards. Waitstaff would get paid way more and the employer would actually have to pay taxes at value.
Prices wouldn’t double at most places, but some waiters at high volume or expensive restaurants make a lot of money, and factoring those wages would be tough on cash flow.
Full time employees will now cost much more to the employer: taxes, health care, benefits, a higher wage (the wage of a waiter is usually much lower than the standard minimum wage).
All these costs add up and the result will be a much higher end cost for your meals. Restaurants usually have razor thin margins as it is...if they even make it past their first couple of years in business.
Again, I feel like most people complain about the wages, but will then complain about the meal costs when they go up because they misunderstand the costs in running a business.
I know many waiters and waitresses and most make way more in tips than they would ever get if they were paid an average wage.
I think if you talked to most waiters/waitresses, they would want to keep the tipping system.
Why would you have to provide benefits just because someone is full time? Vast majority of food service places aren’t huge operations. Whatever regulation rules force benefits for employees certainly don’t apply to a restaurant with 1 or 2 dozen total employees.
Here you seem to know businesses will do what they want if they can get away with it when it comes to employment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21308309. In that example you’d probably agree benefits don’t need to suddenly happen if a business can get away with it.
If tips are gone then the wage would be regulated higher by the business (read as “should”). Seemingly it would just absorb the 15-30% tip amounts but a lot of places would have to account better for the time when things are slow. Instead of the server burdening there slow sales (driver of the tip) the business would have to guarantee the wage. It takes the employee out of the opportunistic approach that tipping seems to suggest. The same happens when you take commissions away. The sales staff now wants a higher equilibrium to account for the lack of an upside.
I can’t say double is the right number but I’m sure it’s higher than just the effective 15-30% tip.
