We don’t tip rarely here- we tip 10% standard for good service in restaurants, and usually put a coin in a tip jar at coffee shops and diners- it’s also polite to leave whatever small coins were given as change.
We don’t tip bar staff, but they usually earn above minimum wage (which is what glass collectors are paid), although when there is table service, or a more up market bar, we might tip.
My sister used to work part-time as a waitress, bartender and cocktail mixologist, and she could earn an awful lot of money in a night in tips. In one upmarket bar where she was serving cocktails, she could make £50 in a night from tips alone- and this is in Edinburgh, the land of notoriously stingy tippers.
The system may be entrenched, but when there was no minimum wage in the UK employers could pay bar staff £1 an hour- that changed when the minimum wage was brought in 7 or 8 years ago, and although price hikes and mass unemployment were predicted as a result, it never happened.
The law should be changed so that everyone is paid a guaranteed minimum wage by their employer, and tips are considered a bonus.
A communal tip jar doesn’t encourage teamwork- it de-motivates people. If you’re not getting 100% of the tips you make, you have very little incentive to work hard.
Would having to give 80% of your pay to your colleagues motivate you?