My experience has been the opposite: they have tried restaurants over they years in several cities I have lived in and they never last. I will say the time of day, the type of place matter of course.

They never lasted, the good people would go on to working shifts that paid much better. Everytime. Why earn 20 to 30 an hour when you can do 40 to 50?

Thats fair, I didn't go that far down to verify the funding, in my source it only said it was conducted by Lloyd Corder, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

I can accept that the industry shapes the narrative, and pointing out who funded this one is doing exactly that.

But it was only one of many, and I will die on this hill: everyone I know does not want to stop making 40 - 50 dollars an hour, and they KNOW that will happen. They worry they will work longer with worse shifts.

Every single restaurant that has tried this in cities I visit has failed. The good servers and bartenders go where the money is.

Personally, yes tipping needs to go away, but everytime I see it tried, it fails.

And I believe the overall quality of life would be better without tips (health care, security, etc) and I don't want them. Hopefully we do get to that point.

The one thing I keep thinking that would have to change for the US: universal health care and paid time off.

Security would make the workers better off. But good luck getting that.

So I didn't follow it back to the souce. Doesnt matter. I shouldnt bother replying to you because you are simply wanting to be an asshat who has a gotcha. You people suck, no intellectual desires at all.

I will die on this hill. I have seen restaurants try and fail. I have known and worked with enough people that hate this idea. The don't want their wages cut, and they know it will.

UNLESS: These two always come up, and its reasonable: profit sharing or commissions. People are nervous about profit sharing (its the food biz after all) and comissions are just tips with extra steps.

And me personally? I think everyone should earn the same: an hour work is the same no matter who you are, so its not like I want tipping.

But your silly ass "gotcha" aside, I will concede that there is a lot of pressure to keep status quo. I have worked with restaurant owners and told them: show your staff how much money you are making everynight. They are doing the work, make them see what they are getting out of it. Restaurants budgets are tight.

Its hard to convince people to change.