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.
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 Minimum wage laws are certainly outdated, but if we tied them to inflation it would be a death spiral.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.