Note: I waited tables for 12 years.

People say all the time that just adding the servers wage into the price of the food is preferable.

This makes no sense to me.

If you’re ok with paying the server’s wage in the first place, why does it matter if it’s factored in to the price of the food or if you just have to scribble down a number on a piece of paper to pay it separately?

Ultimately it’s the customer who pays the servers wage regardless. The owner of the restaurant doesn’t have a separate account full of money that magically comes from nowhere that they could just pay the servers a living wage with but choose not to. All of the money a restaurant takes in comes from paying customers. I see this all the time in threads on Reddit: “the owner should just pay the servers” - where do you think the money to do that comes from? It’s you. Switching to a mandatory charge added to your bill doesn’t change that.

What people are saying, it seems to me, is that thunder to be forced to pay the waiter 20% of the bill rather than having the option to pay them less if the service sucked. Having been a waiter for 12 years, I’ve definitely tipped less or not at all when the service was awful.

I’ve eaten at restaurants in Europe where they explicitly say they charge an extra 20% mandatory to pay wait staff. I got mid-to-awful service at those places and had no option but to pay as if I had exceptional service.

Am I wrong? I’d love to know why. Bear in mind you won’t meet many servers who would want to switch from a tipped system to something else, if any.