Oh, I'm not saying its a good practice. I'm saying that the argument that its unfair to servers is dumb.
You're right, that is a dumb argument. Servers typically make far more than they deserve given their training and skill set, and this comes at the expense of the kitchen staff. This is referred to as the front-of-the-house vs. back-of-the-house disparity, and it widens the more expensive the restaurant gets.
At top places, the wait staff make significantly more money than the kitchen staff, despite the chefs in the kitchen having gone to culinary school and usually having loans to repay. There are multiple stories about NYC chefs who apply to become waiters in their own restaurants because the pay is so much better. The kitchen staffs at restaurants also skews heavily minority (Hispanic, specifically), so this ends up creating a stark racial disparity in restaurant pay also.
I'm totally in support of eliminating tips and just instituting a blanket 15% or so increase, so that the kitchen staff can also receive a fair wage. They're much more deserving of it than the wait staff is, IMO.
This is going to be an interesting conversation given fire_bolt is a chef, IIRC. ---
