I don&#x27;t get why raising the wages implies that food will go up more than the average amount of tipping (~10-20%).  Currently, if it&#x27;s legal for their wages to be lower granted that they are supplemented by tips, if we raised the price of food at establishments with waitstaff by the average tip amount, the amount of money that the customer pays for food would be exactly the same (on average) as it currently is.  Now if that money was diverted directly the the waitstaff (as it currently is) then we would have higher wages being paid to the waitstaff.<p>I recognize that some restaurants might raise prices by more than the average tip amount in order to increase profits, but that seems to be a separate concept from the one that I proposed.  My proposition in no way requires that any restaurant raise the current cost that the customer pays (net money outflow from an average customer).<p>As for high wages not implying good service, I agree, and it&#x27;s also a core axiom of why I believe tipping is inefficient, outdated, and cumbersome.  But if we operate on the assumption that a good server gives good service  in order to earn higher wages through tipping, I think we can also assume that a good server will give good service in order to <i>continue</i> to make his wage and not be fired as a result of treating customers poorly out of laziness.