It would be nice if tipping was just gone, and everybody got paid a living wage, like in most of the rest of the world. We're in a Nash equilibrium right now where if you don't tip, you're an asshole. Other people might even tip more if they hear about it, which reinforces the status quo. So I keep tipping well, and disliking that we're stuck here.
How can we end tipping culture and just have everyone be paid a living wage?
I'm pretty sure that if the tips work out to be less than the minimum wage that the proprietor of the establishment has to back pay them, the problem is enforcing that, because many servers do not report their wages or do not report a portion of their wages in order to avoid having to pay taxes on those wages, And as a former tipped employee myself, I have been indirectly told that if my tips do not bring my wages above minimum wage, that I would no longer have a job, because that would be indicative of my poor performance, rather than some sort of issue with the company itself.
So whenever possible, friends, tip in cash so that Uncle Sam doesn't get to dip his dirty little fingers inside of the employee's pockets that's making $2.13 an hour.