I sympathize with the barista here, but mindset that customers need to cover 10 to 20% of his income is symptom of decades of brainwashing of employees and customers alike. In this case NPR is part of this brainwashing. I will not tip someone for doing their job. I will only tip when I feel it is needed based on the service provided.
We need to revise the federal minimum wage, because it is obviously VERY VERY far behind a living wage as it was intended to be, and remove any caveats regarding tip based positions allowing a lower hourly wage. I’ve seen estimates that out the minimum anywhere between $23-$33 an hour if it kept up with inflation and/or productivity so anything less is just plain criminal.
I say we should advocate for indexing the federal minimum wage to inflation because doing it based on CPI is sure as shit not working anymore.
That’s a good way to send inflation out of control. Minimum wage laws are certainly outdated, but if we tied them to inflation it would be a death spiral. Prices go up, wages go up, which pushes prices up more, so wages go up. Not to mention other factors that cause higher inflation that aren’t directly tied to wages would also push prices and wages up, it would get out of hand real fast.