“The customer is stealing?...” Maybe not but they are being a jackass if they don’t leave a tip for decent service. People should either eat where tips are not expected or leave a tip...
“At TGI Fridays the wait staff have to give three percent to the tip pool based upon their gross sales. So if their sales were $1000 for the night then they should have gotten around $150 for the night of which they have to give away $30 to the pool (goes to other staff). So when a customer runs up a bill of $90 because of drinks and so forth and then stiffs the waiter or waitress he is actually costing him/her money since their salary is $2.05 per hour.”
“....stiffs the waiter or waitress he is actually costing him/her money since their salary is $2.05 per hour.”
$2.05 is well below minimum wage. The restaurant owner is stiffing the waiters before a customer ever walks in the door. The customer isn’t obligated to fix the owner’s greed. It is crazy that restaurants are given some kind of legal exception to minimum wage laws to screw their employees. Unfortunately too, the idea of tipping to reward excellence has degenerated into some kind of sense of entitlement, regardless of performance. I actually do avoid any place that adds a mandatory gratuity to my bill - where is the incentive for the waiter to excel if his tip is already guaranteed? It’s a bit like socialism.