I get it. I hate tipping culture and think it's dumb as hell. I've always tipped 20% regardless of the service I receive because I know service workers rely, almost solely, on tips to pay the bills. It's not my place to take food off someone's plate because maybe they were having an off day at work.

I'm with you on the concerns to small business's as well. A sudden change from paying your full time staff $31,000 a year, where they were previously making $5500, isn't the type of overnight accounting change that's gonna land a soft blow. I don't know what the actual solve is to be honest. I wish I understood the service industry a little better to get why restaurants and bars outside the US don't have this problem.

I guess I'm also rambling now. Here's a question though, and something I think about often. Why don't all restaurants, bars, etc just add a mandatory 18% gratuity to every bill? It's not a perfect solution, but it guarantees as long as there's business the staff is getting their cut. It would also circumvent the pieces of shit who think they have some moral high ground not to pay someone for their labor because their arbitrary bar for "good service" wasn't met.