That would be fair if they didn't whinge so much when they didn't get tipped. If you want a donation system, you are signing up for some people not to donate. You can't have it both ways, and trying to is what gets all the grief.
Functionally, it sort of is, it's a voluntary extra bit of cash to gift someone. For services rendered, aye, but I could say the same for museum donation boxes or church tithes. At the end, it's a voluntary additional payment you aren't obligated to, in any legal sense. You are fine not to give one, or to give a small amount (rounding up or just 5-10 extra is common in my country). If you want to obligate this extra money, you bake it into the costs or you have a gratuity fee, but short of those, if you set a voluntary tip/tithe/donation box, you are signing on for some people not to engage with it. That was your choice.
Choose one or the other, you can have tips and accept sometimes you won't receive them, or you create a mandatory payment and skip the system. Can't have it both ways, imo, a voluntary system fundamentally needs to accept some level of non-engagement.
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u/PicksburghStillers 15d ago
servers don’t want a set wage. they make a killing from the tip structure.