The thing is, it's your BUSINESS's clients, not yours. You said so yourself just now. You work for the business, which sells services to the clients. At no point the clients should pay you directly.

Using my profession as a software developer (and putting aside the salary of a developer because I know it's not comparable in terms of salaries, but bear with me for the sake of the example) - sometimes clients pay money for new features that they want our service to have. I do all the work of researching it, understanding the requirements, I design the feature, write code for it, do automation tests for it, deploy it, and enable it - all for my client. It took me 3 months.

But hey, I did all that and the client never paid me. They paid the place I work for. How come? I would love to get 15% of the money the customer paid. But it's just not happening. I do not get a tip.

But that's fine. Because this is how it works in almost all industries. A client pays the business. The business hires workers and pays them. The workers keep the place running by doing their jobs which ends up in sales.

We (as a society) don't pay tips to a doctor doing a physical exam on us. We don't pay tips to a city worker approving our registrations. We don't pay tips to a university professor teaching us a course. Those all examples of professions that include some kind of a frontal service to clients, yet they never expect it either, because they get properly paid by the workplace.

Now, it is not the same for waiters and bartenders. They expect tips. You are a jerk and rude if you don't tip, and we don't want you here. Don't you dare give our business money if you aren't going to give some of it to us as well.

So why is this so different from the other professions? I would wager the main issue stems from the terrible minimum wages, forcing waiters so look for alternatives. The alternatives ended up being very good for the employers, so they reinforced it and made it the standard. The more they can convince everyone to tip, the more they shift the "pay the worker" part of the business to the client. Suddenly the client is paying for both the service they bought AND the worker. The business is very happy that they get to keep more money to themselves and the responsibility is now the client's.

It has now became so normalized in USA that people will fight to keep this new normal. Instead people should strive to make those businesses work just like any other business by giving them fair wages.

I would be questioning why I expect my clients to pay me when that's what my employer does.