I've said it before, the only way to get out of the tipping culture is to stop tipping, and to continue to fight for a raised minimum wage. There's just no way around it, that's how some other countries got out of the tipping culture too. Shaming others who don't tip, and tipping when you go out, just contributes to the problem.
If people understand that tipping is actually less of a thing, then the pressure will be on the employers, not the customers.
I know I'll get downvoted for saying that, because we're still much in a "if you don't tip you're an asshole" culture. But I personally have decided that I will contribute to the solution by not tipping.
I've worked as a waiter during my university time and tips were the best thing in the world for someone that did not need any real qualifications. My wage alone would have barely covered my expenses but with tips I paid all of my living costs and could put aside a bit for my future. It was a system I liked as an employee since even when there were few customers I had not to worry too much about getting laid off immediately and the tips I received more than made up for my low wage. People who don't tip out of some principle with no viable alternative at hand other than saying make service employees miserable so that they will change a system that works for them are worse than those that simply are greedy in my opinion, such customers at least do not delude themselves that they are doing Good ™
You were frustrated the customer didn't pay you an arbitrary amount to live off based on their mood instead of frustrated that your boss didn't pay you a legally mandated amount to live off.
The worst part about tipping culture is that somehow bosses have convinced their staff to be upset at customers.
We’ve got to stop thinking about tipping as “the customer giving money to the server as a reward for good service.” and start thinking about it as “the customer subsidizing the business owner so he can save money on wages.” How did making payroll become the customer’s job and moral duty?
vouched this because it more or less matches my experience as a server. also want to second this point. do not "protest tipping" by refusing to tip employees who expect at least 15% to make ends meet. you're not making a point; you're just screwing over some random person.
also this ties into something that a lot of people don't seem to take into account when arguing for abolishing tipping. servers tend to like tipping. they don't enjoy the behavioral pressure, but they generally believe (correctly or not) that they make more money with tipping than they would in a counterfactual world without.
no one said anything about forcing and I don't currently work as a server. I'm strongly suggesting that not tipping doesn't make the point you think it does, and it definitely doesn't help that particular service worker. you're not pressuring the owner to change shit. you're sending home a low income employee with less than they reasonably expected to make off serving you dinner. servers who routinely complain about low/no tips tend to get fired (it's taken as a proxy for poor performance), not given a raise.
This reminds me of some old people in my country who say that communism was the best thing in the world, they had most things provided, they never had to worry about a job or having a place to live, the collapse of the communist government was the worst thing that has happened to them. Sure, there were some problems, maybe you couldn't buy a new car and only had oranges once a year and people elsewhere were going on holidays to the balearics while you had to content with the black sea if you were lucky and the local police station agreed to let you borrow a passport for a couple weeks, but the advantages overall outweigh the disadvantages. To them, people trying to change the system were the bad people - after all, communism REALLY worked well for them, and the winds of change came and the government-secured factory job or subsidized apartment, gas and electricity disappeared. World went to shit for them. Of course change was bad.
And yes, unfortunately the way to fix the tipping problem is to stop tipping. It will be miserable for people like yourself, but if you can't afford to live on a shitty non-tipping wage, you will leave and do something else. Your employer will run out of staff, or will get the worst staff on earth willing to work for a dollar an hour. Even if you decide to stay and live out of your car, you won't be happy. The restaurant will suffer because the staff won't care any more and it will start hitting the owners directly. So wages will increase. It's not rocket science.
That's how unions are formed, that's how people revolt, that's how people start caring about the political side of things and finally make the change happen - they have to be unhappy about the current system first.
And it is a parasite system on some societies - I'm glad you're on the happy side of it, but the system needs to change anyway.
If people understand that tipping is actually less of a thing, then the pressure will be on the employers, not the customers.
I know I'll get downvoted for saying that, because we're still much in a "if you don't tip you're an asshole" culture. But I personally have decided that I will contribute to the solution by not tipping.