Restaurant Servers Say Eliminating Tips May Hurt Wait Service

Many servers say they wait tables because of the tips. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
On April 1, when Seattle’s new minimum wage law went into effect, the city’s restaurateurs responded to the increase in labor costs in a variety of ways: Tom Douglas announced he was adding a 2 percent “wage equity surcharge” to diners’ checks. (The next day, after a wave of negative feedback, he nixed the idea.) Ivar’s Salmon House also raised prices in order to pay for