Should tipping be abolished in favor of higher base wages for service workers?

Here is the uncomfortable truth: tipping is the only performance pay most service workers will ever see, and service got noticeably worse everywhere it faded. When the tip is guaranteed in the wage, the incentive to hustle on a slammed Saturday night evaporates. I have eaten in countries without tipping cultures and the service is fine but indifferent; nobody is refilling your water before you ask. Tips let customers reward great work directly, server to human, with no manager or algorithm in between. If the problem is the $2.13 floor set in 1991, raise the floor. That fixes exploitation without destroying the one mechanism that makes American service famously attentive. The federal rules themselves confirm the $2.13 cash wage and the employer make-up requirement. DOL Fact Sheet #15.