The largest proponents of tipping have always been the service staff themselves (followed closely by restaurants). The service staff like it because they genera

The largest proponents of tipping have always been the service staff themselves (followed closely by restaurants). The service staff like it because they generally take home far more than minimum wage (something they're still guaranteed, btw, they only get the subminimum when tips exceed minimum wage), and the restaurant likes it because they can increase their margins since consumers pay their staff. The people who generally hate this the most are consumers because they're the ones getting the short end of the stick. Don't get me wrong, I hate the ridiculousness of tipping in the US and how 20-25% has somehow become the norm over 10-15% a few decades ago. But I hate it as the fucked over consumer, not over some misguided notion of worker exploitation. And honestly don't even understand how people have bought into this weird, obviously incorrect, talking point.