Whether or not this would be advantageous or at the very least neutral for servers in high-end restaurants remains to be seen. Their hourly wages would have to be very high.
Fair enough, though the Chef in this case mentioned that he reset prices based on replacing what was actually being tipped.
I assume there was pretty good tracking based on either pooled tips, or tip-out to kitchen staff.
But I don't know how they arrived at their numbers.
Done properly it should replace lost money due to tips; but it will have 2nd order effects. For instance, Friday/Saturday night shifts in the industry tend to be the big money makers, full-house, 2 or more turns of a table, it's date night etc.
While staff typically also have to work Tuesdays, or a Lunch service when tips may be much lower.
Here this will be evened out by salary/equal hourly wages for all shifts.
That is potentially a fairness gain for staff, though may be offset by a headache for the rest of less people wanting to work on their Saturday night if they get the same $$ as working Tuesday lunch.
Still, in principle, I favour it.
We don't expect transit drivers to work for tips, but many Taxi drivers count on it.
We don't expect postal workers to work for tips, but pizza delivery people often count on it.
Etc. It's a rather unevenly applied concept and one which allows for unfairness and wage volatility (tipping), and the issue of insecurity in terms of parental leave/EI as well.
It did have the perk for some of de facto tax evasion; not sure that's a good argument for it though.
www.blogto.com
Can't say i blame them. 
