A couple of years back, if you had posited that restaurant tipping in America might one day disappear, people would have laughed at you. Tipping is such an integral part of our dining culture that the idea of a world without it seems antithetical to the American way.

But recent changes to minimum-wage laws in major cities, as well as the increasingly dire deficit in decent kitchen staff, have made owners and managers think hard about their current economic model. Many have come to the conclusion that if restaurants are going to remain viable, a new model is unavoidable.

In Los Angeles, for the most part, restaurateurs that have moved away from traditional tipping are now using a service charge, adding 18 to 20 percent to checks. This allows the restaurant to decide how that charge is split among its employees and avoids laws that prohibit back-of-house workers sharing in tips. (This is quite complex, legally, and the courts are still hashing out who can receive what type of tip.) It's understandable that owners wouldn't want to enact policies that may well be illegal now or sometime in the future depending on what the courts decide.

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With the service-charge model, customers generally are given the option to leave an extra tip as well, which allows us to retain the sense of generosity that comes with tipping but also poses new uncertainties: Are we supposed to tip extra? Will we be seen as miserly if we don't? Many places have added a 3 percent charge for health care, some on top of the service charge and some alongside a traditional tipping model. One chef has added a line for tips dedicated specifically to the kitchen staff. Are we supposed to take these charges into consideration when figuring out a total tip percentage, or are they seen as extra? While I applaud these owners' attempts to take care of their employees and understand that the problem is complex, the range of differing charges and tipping options does tend to make the end of a meal confusing and a little stressful — and can rip you from the warm embrace of hospitality that the restaurant has spent so many hours cultivating.

In New York, however, the trend seems to be shifting toward no tipping at all and no service charge, either. This move has been most visible and significant with the restaurants of Danny Meyer, one of the country's most prominent restaurateurs: Meyer has eliminated tipping and raised menu prices significantly to cover the costs of paying more to all of his employees. Eater New York's Ryan Sutton covered Meyer's policy and motivations extensively, and he does a great job of explaining all the reasons the change is so significant.

