Shortly before opening, Casa Bonita’s new owners Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to eliminate tipping and instead pay workers a flat wage of $30 per hour.
Now I could be wrong, but getting a an hourly wage as a restaurant worker is FAR better than relying on tips. I feel like either workers in this situation are too obsessed with tips or there’s huge context missing.
I see your point, I disagree though about the perceived value of the competitive hourly wage when you remove the tipping context. It's a fairly normal occurence here for example to miss your hospitality worker family member at the holiday reunion because they're off working - not out of obligation, but because those shifts attract penalty rates by law so they're in high demand. The same is true to a lesser extent on weekends & after 7pm daily. It does mean that places close earlier at night and pay close attention when budgeting payroll though
Even with tipping some of the slower holiday shifts here are attractive to people. I used to work with a bartender who would always pick up the Christmas night shift. The volume was dogshit but with him and one person in the kitchen they’d clear tips like it was Friday.