I’m not sure a law explicitly stopping people from giving more money would pass, but maybe one explicitly asking restaurants to stop asking for tips would work.
This is the only way I've found to attack the structural problem of tipping without hurting the workers.
This is still tricky for the worker, because waitstaff management uses tip totals as a proxy for worker productivity. I try to offset that by writing on the receipt, which the worker can share to demonstrate it wasn't because they did a bad job.
The rest of the incentives are impacted in the way I want them to be, except for taxation, which I believe in, and the kitchen staff who are usually underpaid with the expectation that a percent of tips will flow to them.
That's my big problem. I hate tipping, but I still tip well - to do otherwise is to punish the people with the least ability to change the system.
The only good way I know of to attack the structural problem is to preferentially frequent the few restaurants with a non-tip policy.
Friends in hospitality. Unfortunately, there is a contingent of assholes who do this in lieu of tipping at all. This doubly fucks the server in a place with pooled tips; their colleagues now question whether they stole the tip.
If it is out of fairness to the back of kitchen staff, then they should take a front of house job instead. That’s like an engineer demanding to get part of a sales guy’s commission on a sale.
I want restaurants to just charge what it costs to make and serve food and I can choose to eat there or not based on the listed price.
What bothers me is "the price is $X, but if you don't pay $Y our workers won't be able to make ends meet, please support them!" I don't know how much your workers need, that's your job when you set prices! (And if the price is too high, I won't eat there, no harm done.)
I just wonder if they expect you to also add an additional tip, since 2.5% is so much lower than the standard percentage.
It is as simple as the business wanting to trick people into thinking prices are lower than they actually are.
That being said I generally get take out because many restaurants in my area have a kitchen appreciation fee when you dine in.
You legally require it be removed from receipts and PoS systems, and mandate that all tips be taken by the venue rather than going to the workers (or at minimum be distributed evenly between all workers).
A decade or so ago, there was some talk of it eventually being banned by he Supreme Court due to it being de-facto racial discrimination in pay.
Sure, you can always slip them something under the table, but right now it's mostly an official, sanctioned part of their pay.