When we instituted the $15/hr minimum wage in Seattle, I wondered idly whether that would reduce the pressure to tip 20%+ at restaurants. It should, right? Beca

When we instituted the $15/hr minimum wage in Seattle, I wondered idly whether that would reduce the pressure to tip 20%+ at restaurants. It should, right? Because if the reason to tip is really to address economic inequalities in the service industry, then doubling the minimum wage should mean less tip wages are required. The tips were meant to bring the effective wage up to a certain threshold we arbitrary decided we could stop feeling so guilty about — and so was the $15 minimum. (another possibility is the 20% tipping level was arbitrary, and turned out to be too low to have been serving its intended purpose in the first place. That is very possible.) Anyway, I wondered about that, and predicted that the power of upper middle class guilt was strong enough that we'd just continue doing the same thing as always, which turned out to be more or less correct up until now. We'll see how this shakes out.