As usual of "reporting" in the United States this is devoid of anything beyond informing the reader that something happened. Tipping in this country should be

As usual of "reporting" in the United States this is devoid of anything beyond informing the reader that something happened. Tipping in this country should be called what it is: customer subsidization of service worker wages. Restaurants are allowed to pay their workers below minimum wage because of the expectation for tips. The answer has been clear for a while now. Require full minimum wage (not that it's enough) for all service workers regardless of their role and require that all tips be pooled for everyone working a given shift. As others have mentioned the tipping culture in the U.S. has its roots in the abuses of the antebellum South. Tipping is paternalistic and many people treat it as a way to exercise power over service workers. It needs to be abolished, but as with most things we'll probably have to do it in phases.