I think it's gotten out of hand and somewhat toxic at least in USA/Canada.
I think it's ridiculous with the current cost of living and inflation crisis that even places where you don't normally tip are now asking you for tips. Even their default options are 18% minimum. Hell, some places they add on a "mandatory gratuity" charge on top of the bill which is horrible.
Although I do tip, I don't necessarily agree with the culture in North America. I think it's up to the business to pay their servers fairly and let tipping be truly optional. That was what I noticed a big difference when I went to Iceland last summer was tipping isn't really a thing there or many other places in Europe.
Another reason I enjoy my regular trips to the Far East. Tipping isn't expected anywhere except high class places. And no one is banging their tin cup in your face for doing the simplest of jobs. The very concept needs a hard reset in the United States; full elimination and a reset of expectations on those odd occasions where one feels moved to include a gratuity. Five percent is more than adequate. From having worked in a small, family-owned retail business (where I didn't receive tips for customer service) I can tell you that it's not common for items to have a profit margin >18-20%. So, it's nonsensical to expect the customer - and yes, there are very strong social pressures to pony up - to bear the burden of increasing, potentially doubling, the profit on a good or service. If you want to make more profit, price it into what the customer expects to pay, and share that windfall with your employees. Otherwise, the owner is getting away with having a third party, under duress, pay the salary of his employees.
This was understood a long time ago, but greed always prevails.
A hard reset is possible only if the government takes the suitable measures for higher wages of waiters or if a huge anti-tipping campaign (notipping hashtag) is launched on social media.
By higher wages for wait staff, I hope you mean they make the same minimum wage as every other unskilled job. Beyond that, let the owners set the wage based on where the restaurant sits in the financial food chain.
Whenever I go to restaurant I pay cash. If it’s sit down table service I always tip about 20% unless it is really bad service. There are some places I go every week that I know the staff fairly well so I tip more there. If I go to a restaurant that I order at the counter the most I tip is $1 or $2 if it is a place I frequent so not much in that case.
it was fine before the prices of everything rose exponentially. I don’t really book a table at a restaurant anymore due to it costing anywhere from $50-$100 with tip, I usually just do to-go pickup orders and tip 5-10% instead.
I'm sure companies could disable those kiosk things from automatically asking for a tip if they wanted. Wouldn't surprise me if they are trying to figure out a way to make all of their employees into tipped employees.