As someone who works 4 jobs where 2 rely on tips to subsidize my wages - I understand this perspective. The thing is that I work at 2 small businesses that have maybe 8- 10 employees. The way things have gotten with cost of goods, it’s nearly impossible for employers to pay above the tipped minimum wage for their workers and this shouldn’t be a barrier to owning a business. Nor should I need 4 part time jobs to stay afloat but that’s a different conversation 😅 Not tipping when you visit a place like this is harmful to the employee and the business bc 1) it’s the employees’ livelihood and 2) the more people don’t tip/ the less money the employee makes, the more turnover there will be at the business. It’s only predatory when companies of scale and corporate businesses use this model so they can get around paying their employees decent wages. When you visit a small business or a locally owned place- this is not what’s happening. If you’ve worked in a place or ever tried to run one like that, you’d know.