> The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there.

Are you sure? I've seen way more staff shortages in real life restaurants over the past 5-6 years than any other time in my life.

The US restaurant industry runs/ran on exploited, immigrant labor, which is now in short supply for obvious reasons.

https://foodinstitute.com/focus/labor-shortages-costly-probl...

> Nearly 16 million people worked in restaurants last year, representing about 10% of the national workforce, and 62% of operators said recruiting and keeping employees is a real headache. “The reasons for staffing shortages are both cyclical and structural,” Milos Eric, co-founder and general manager of OysterLink, told FI, noting government statistics showed 44,000 hospitality jobs were added in March alone, but 167,000 openings remained unfilled nationwide.

> “The reasons for staffing shortages are both cyclical and structural,” Milos Eric, co-founder and general manager of OysterLink, told FI, noting government statistics showed 44,000 hospitality jobs were added in March alone, but 167,000 openings remained unfilled nationwide. Eric said deportation is compounding the problem, considering government data shows 37% of cooks and 5% of dishwashers are foreign-born.

https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/restauran...

These jobs can be filled with domestic US workers, simply pay living wages.