So where does the employer get the money that becomes gross profit and covers expenses if not from the customers? If it does come from the customers then we’re back to the customers paying 100% of the employees’ wages.

That was then, this is now. Their empathy is, imho, is misplaced.
I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother. Her husband died when my mother was a baby. She supported my mom as a waitress in a small diner. Later, I used to take her out for lunch or dinner on a regular basis in the mid 1970's. Even then, she scolded me for the "fortune" I left in tips. She reminded me often that I couldn't save the world or make someone else's choices all better by throwing my hard earned money at them. She was always thankful for any gratuity, but she never expected anything. When she was working, good manners was expected and rewarded with ... good manners in return. Not cash in excess of one's hourly pay.

Dear Bill,
It's near my bed time. And it's been fun playing "Who's on first" with you. Let's put Abbott and Costello to bed for the night and we can play again tomorrow. I am convinced you are not as thick as you pretend, and you understand the basics of business.
Nighty night. Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite.
Sweet dreams, fdpaq. 😴😴

(Typed this three times but the page seems to be having problems)

Shortened version: I’m truly sorry you can’t understand simple, basic cash flow. No matter how you wish to frame it, the customer pays 100% of the employees’ wages.

Don’t like tips? Demand a 20% price increase to cover actual employee costs.

Personally, I like to have some say over the compensation of those who serve me - treat me well and get a good tip, treat me poorly and get what you get.

Well, then there's one of you...:sigh:

Good day to you.
I get what you are saying. In any business, when the customer pays for a product or service, the customer pays 100% of the cost to provide the product or service, plus provide a profit for the company.
My position is that tipping 15 or 20 percent only give you an unreal sense of control. It's unnecessary and/or fake, and can even foster resentment on the part of the employee forced to faun over customers to get what the employer holds back as inducement to be civil to the customers. If the customer tips, the employer adds that "withheld amount to their profit. Keeps the corporate thumbscrew in place.
Don't have to demand a 20% increase to cover the actual cost of labor because it is already built into the business model. Any difference you think you receive in service is only imagined. Any employee that abused a customer would be removed, tipped or not.
Just my opinion.

We’re still tipping
 

$13 an hour, if the wait staff are indeed making that much, is so little. Amounts to about $25,000 a year.

When we are in the Villages, and when the service is good, we tip generously.

What about when you are not in TV? Just curious.

It doesn't amount to about $25,000/year. Wait staff jobs are typically PART TIME JOBS, with no benefits other than discounts on their meal (or free meal allowance during work shift), and some of them allow short breaks during their shift. No life insurance, no health insurance, not even if they pay their own premiums. They get maybe $13,000/year, assuming they work an average 20 hours every week for 50 weeks out of the year. That's IF they get the state non-tipped minimum wage.

If they get the tipped minimum wage, their minimum wage is $9.98/hour. So their employer would have to pay them at least $9,980/YEAR - and as long as those servers get tips equaling more than $3.02/hour, that's all their employer has to pay them. If their tips are under $3.02/hour, then the employer has to make up the difference, up to the total of $13/hour.

Most people don't care how much money others are making. The problem with tipping is that it is intimidating, which most people don't like. They also don't like being asked to donate to a charity at the grocery store.

That is right. I chose the charity I want to donate to, and my wealthy friends have family foundations for charities. At most what grocery and other stores could do is bring your attention to charities in need. Then one decides if and how much to support them.

True!

Most people that I know don't mind tipping and don't find it intimidating.

If they are working a low end job, it should be a filler for spending in high school. Anyone working in the range above a fast food level, should be doing quite well for themselves for a part time job if they are any kind of server at all. Some make $700. in tips working Mother's Day brunch. This would be top-notch servers who celebrate Mother's Day for themselves one day early or one day later. Why not for that type of reward? The Villages may be a different animal but along with the cheap tippers there are those who are very generous when tipping. I'd like the whole thing wrapped up in the price and firm. Servers are no different than nurses, Drs., customer service at your local store who are paid an appropriate wage. We don't worry about the level of service from them, why should food servers be any different?

I don't think the 400 plus posters on this thread or the Pew Research Center findings would agree.

How Americans feel about tipping for service | Pew Research Center