What a terrible pandering article. It essentially brings up 3 points:
Employees don't make enough without tips: If employees are having to rely on the kindness of customers for a living wage then they should be angry at their bosses, not the customers. If businesses don't make enough to pay their employees a living wage then they should raise their prices. If raising their prices means customers stop coming in then they don't have a sustainable business model.
Reminds people that their is a tipped hourly wage that is $2.13: Apparently this category of worker is twice as likely to be in poverty so we should just tip to subsidize? How about we abolish that law? Fuck the government for continuing to subsidize shitty business practices by allowing a law to exist that statistically shows a 100% increase in the likelihood a citizen will be in poverty. Also this argument is already immediately moot for a majority of states which either don't allow tipped wages or already tie tipped wages to minimum wage so that you can't be paid less than your states minimum wage. Honestly this argument is so stupid it reminds me of people who say they can't earn more money because they'll make less money because they don't understand progressive tax brackets. What a shallow analysis by NPR.
"You hurt my feelings when you don't tip like you don't value my labor": Fuck you. Your boss doesn't value your labor. My job as a customer isn't to pay you for doing your job. I obviously value your labor because I'm buying stuff at the store that you work at. Your boss doesn't value your labor. It's just easier for you to bully and guilt customers into paying your wage rather than demand your rightful value from your employer.
You're right, I thought it was tied to state minimum wages which some don't have but it's tied to federal minimum wages which makes more sense. I suppose that just makes the original argument even more moot though.