There are laws in place for service workers related to minimum wage. The employers have to make up the difference if tips don’t meet the rate for hours worked. It seems to me that’s not sufficient for the times.
Hypothetically, if everyone were to stop tipping in the U.S. would things be better or worse for workers? Would employers start paying workers more?
Technically it’s required everywhere due to the national minumum wage law (up to 7.25/hr not the state’s min wage if it’s higher, that depends on state laws). If they don’t it’s wage theft, but so few employees know this that it happens all the time and basically never gets reported.