So do we tip to supplement poor wages? It seems unfair that factory workers and refuse collectors don't get this perk. Aren't fair wages a human right we try to protect (hence the legislated minimum wage)? How does tipping help? Or do we tip to reward good service? I'm confused

So did you ?

I think you can compare it to a salesperson. They are paid a low basic wage and earn commission on everything they sell. The more they sell the more they earn.

In a restaurant the staff are paid minimum wage and earn tips. The better time the customers have the more likely they are to tip and the more likely they are to come back and tip again.

The customer tops up the salesperson's wages but does not see it because the commission is built into the selling price. In a restaurant it is not and the whole thing is more transparent.

Yes.

So...

It is the accepted norm that, if you don't tip, you deserve to have someone else's bodily fluid mixed into your food?

I concur....and the morons that took it upon themselves to bombard everyone with that name that has a facebook account

A tip should not be a given......do people tip bag packers in grocery stores, beer stores, your postal folk, cable person, gabbage folks or even people that do your oil change? Why is a restaurant any different?

Because it is. And if you worry about it then you are a cheap bastard.

It doesn't matter why it's different. A potential customer knows that it's different, knows that the staff depend on the tip, knows that tipping is an obligation and would be a shit to eat and not tip.

Maybe you all just tip because you're scared - From what you've told me, it sounds like bribery/blackmail.

Do you tip the guy at Tims? Do you tip the guy at McDonalds? Or is there some kind of snobby heirarchy where you only tip at "proper" restaurants? Isn't that social discrimination?

we tip based on the amount of mess our child has made

I don't go to "Tim's". I don't go to McDonalds. If they have table service one is obliged to tip, "proper restaurant" or not. That's how it's done in North America.

No, because they don't wait on you. Neither are they restaurants. The use of the word "proper" is redundant here.

Or anywhere that service is not included. I always tipped in the UK the same as I do here, though I note that many places tend to add 12.5%, presumably to deal with the cheapskates who would otherwise leave a pound coin.

I see that, once again, rather than accept that someone may have a different opinion to you, you resort to name calling.

Is not tipping in the same league as choosing to fly Air Transhat or Thomas C*%t Airways?