Nobody would be a server for minimum wage . People become servers because of the tips you can earn as a server which are well above minimum wage . I don ' t know how it is in your country , but in America , actual minimumwage jobs are what teenagers who don ' t give a fuck get for the summer , or people who live in ghettos who have no other options . These aren ' t the type of people who would be servers , which is a fastpaced , multitasking , highstress and c u s tomersatisfactionoriented job . If you disagree with this , you simply haven ' t been a server so you don ' t know what goes on behindthescenes in restaurants . Most restaurants survive on making barely more money than their expenses , so paying their employees less which is made up for by tipping is a way for them to stay operational . If you were to get rid of the tipping system , all that would result in is the employer having to charge 15 % more for their food to cover the cost of paying their employees what servers typically earn . So , whether tipping is in place or not , you ' re still paying 15 % more than current menu prices . Either you have 15 % lower menu prices and tip the rest , or you tip nothing and have 15 % higher menu prices . With a tipping system , at least you have the option of tipping less or not tipping in the rare case that you get shitty service .