$2.13 Is the Tipping Point -- America's Food Servers Are Grossly Underpaid

[Ms. Toad]

20. You can consistently count on minimum wage,

Because the law requires the employer to make up the difference if the restaurant is not full, or you had crappy tables which did not tip. And in many restaurants (as noted) on a regular basis you make more.

That said, I think it is a lousy system - and waitstaff should be paid a living wage, and restaurants should charge what it takes to pay that wage. (But - every time I say that, it doesn't take very long for some waitstaff to chime in that they don't want to go to to straight hourly.)

A system which leaves everything to chance, and to the honesty of waitstaff in reporting tips to their employer and the IRS - and to the employer who (as noted below) can blatantly violate the law by requiring his staff to report tips they haven't received or (I'm sure is the implication) be fired, and shifts the employer's burden to pay its employees to patrons of the establishment stinks, and is an invitation to game the system. When, as inevitably happens, people do game the system it creates both resentment at the gaming - and (rightfully) outrage that the system which is structured so that it needs to be gamed in order to make a living.