The Practice of Tipping should be Stopped immediately.

My opponent claims that "if the absence of tips would raise the price of the food, then logically the tips lower the price of food". This statement does not respond in any way to my explanation in round 2 so I assume that my opponent cannot counter it. I do not deny that a customer has the power to decline leaving a tip. That is obvious. However the customer would still be looked down upon by the employee, the business, and society. A tip is no longer meant to reward good service but is expected for merely passable service. My opponent says that an increase of pay to a livable wage would not increase loyalty. What proof does he have to support this statement? If a person is getting paid a wage that allows them to live comfortably they will tend to be at least more careful to not provide horrible service. They will not want to risk their job because it is a decent one. The use of tips to reward good performance seems to be a central argument for my opponent. He maintains that if tips are not used workers such as waiters would not have the "incentive" needed to perform well. I maintain that a hourly wage is all the incentive necessary. If an incentive such as a tip was needed to motivate those who interact directly with the buyer or customer to work well, as my opponent claims, then why don't we tip non-commissioned salespeople? Why don't we tip mechanics that are not self-employed but work as part of a larger dealer? Why don't we tip the mailman? Or a fast food employee? All of those jobs require direct interaction with the buyer and buyers can easily "know the quality of the individual's contribution". My argument is that tipping is done completely arbitrarily. Some people say we should tip some and not tip others. However there is no clear separation to determine who we should tip. An aside here in case a weary argument is put forth as a last resort by my opponent. Some people argue that we need to tip waiters and delivery guys because they are not paid minimum wage. That is utter fabrication. There are both Federal and State (or Provincial) minimum wages. The employers must ensure the worker is paid at least that much. However some employers can use customer tips as a credit against the minimum wage. In other words, if the minimum wage is 8 dollars an hour and the employee received a dollar in tips then the employer can say that he doesn't need to pay that dollar to the worker since the worker has already been "paid" it. Then the employer only needs to pay 7 dollars. However if no tips are received then the employer cannot claim a credit and must pay the full 8 dollars. Perhaps that will clear up the "tipping reduces prices" misconception. The employer builds into the price of the product (such as a dinner) a minimum wage for his employees. He expects to pay 8 dollars an hour. However if you tip a dollar then suddenly he doesn't have to pay that dollar. Do you expect him to pass on those savings to you? Absolutely not! He will pocket that dollar as extra profit. There is no evidence that tipping reduces prices (since the employer needs to expect to pay a minimum wage anyways), there is no evidence that tipping is required as a service metric (otherwise the Customer Service reps at your local retails store would perform appallingly), and there is no explanation why tipping is seen to be required for some customer service positions and not others. Thank-You.