I agree with you regarding tips to some extent. As someone else pointed out, these days there are these "tip cups" everywhere. I even see them in SubWay. Now, sometimes I do throw in a dollar - and I find that this helps my service when I return. However, overall, these tip jars are presumptuous.
But your argument about lower-paying job is egregiously flawed. I worked in restaurants in high school and college (to pay for my schooling). As a busboy and then a waiter, my pay (from the restaurant) was VERY low. I might make a scant $1.25/hour as a waiter (this was in the 80's). Why so low? Because the restaurant figured with my tips, I would easily be at minimum wage or better. I've seen this at many restaurants as well.
There might be some restaurants who do pay a far higher base salary, but again, even they calculate your overall salary to be much higher due to tips.
So to not tip your waiter/waitress because you figure they are making enough from the restaurant is flat-out wrong. The restaurant doesn't pay a lot because the restaurant ownders know the wait-staff rely mostly on tips for their pay.
Also, if you ever want decent service, not tipping is not the way to get it.
If you didn't tip me once, I might forgive you. But if you came back and didn't tip, you wouldn't get good service ever again. You could complain all you want, but as far as I was concerned, the restaurant was better off without your patronship. Is this presumptuous of me? Yes, but I found that most people who don't tip (or tip poorly) are also inconsiderate in other areas. For example, they tie up a table for hours (preventing turnover, a key to both the wait-staff's and a restaurant's success) and/or they order very low-priced items. In other words, the restaurant loses money serving them.
So, if you decide not to tip at a SubWay, that's excusable. By law, Subway must pay minimum wage, if not more, to their employees. These employees do not rely on tips. If they get some, great, but they don't count on them as their pay. In contrast, most wait-people do count on tips, VERY much so. For you not to tip is like asking them to essentially work for free.
Could these wait-people get another job? Yes, but I would argue that you could get another job that pays you more so as well. And that extra money you earn could be used to tip better!
*edited typo
[This message has been edited by doctorwho (edited 05-15-2002).]