Keep in mind that at least in a lot of places, the servers are the ones packaging your food. Those are the people who depend on tips and while they're putting your food in containers they aren't serving tables, so they are likely missing out on tips there.
They should definitely raise that with management, and it should be appropriately compensated.
See what I did there? I correctly made it a problem between the staff and management, rather than making it the customer's problem. This is actually the answer to all tipping/under-compensation problems.
At the macro level, I'm not advocating for tips at all. I think it's a bad system.
But the reality is a lot of people rely on those jobs and have very little bargaining power as individuals. Most don't have the luxury of refusing a job, unlike the highly in demand people here. I don't think it's my place to deny those people income they depend on out of a principal. It'll hurt the little guy and make very little if any difference to the big companies.
If you asked just about any waiter if they would forego the tip system + reduced minimum wage for straight minimum wage, they will tell you no, because they'd make less money.
If a waiter can only make minimum wage then perhaps their labor would be more productive elsewhere. I've never felt like the job of picking up a plate from the kitchen and putting it on a table was all that useful, but I also get that there's more going on in a restaurant; making proles perform for money obviously confers some status on the payer.
It is privileged, because most of the people here aren't relying on jobs like this. Most of us are knowledge workers or professionals who DO have the clout to demand more money. This is something you can't do if you're a busboy or waiter. Maybe if all the busboys in America got together or something... Food service workers are effectively disposable in most restaurants.
And it is tone deaf. You're talking about an industry rife with worker abuses and wage theft. It's ok to be against mandatory tipping. Pretending the solution to workers not getting paid is as simple as "they should take it up with management" is ridiculous. Real "let them eat cake" energy.
Penalizing individual workers who rely on tips is not brave or effective.
Then they should demand higher wages.
And if that's too high a cost for the restaurant - they should raise their prices or close their business.
Tipping does not make sense, and makes even less sense for takeout.
