Well you are 100% correct BUT.... how many eating establishments get away with paying their employees less than minimum wage, using tips as an excuse for the low pay? How many of these same eating establishments classify their workers as part time even though according to the amount of hours worked they are full time?
They should really crack down on the service industry. I don't mind paying a few extra bucks on my steak if it means I don't have to worry about my waitress starving.
It would have to be a pretty crappy restaurant to not average over minimum wage in tips over the course of an 8 hour shift. MOST people tip 10-15% at the minimum and I have never been to a place with actual waitstaff that cost less than around $8-10 per meal. Sure, if you averaged 4 tables per hour that were all single eaters you might not hit minimum wage, but then you would have time to sit around and do just about anything in that situation (play candy crush, read a book, etc.) Not exactly earning your money.
See, I don't mind paying a few dollars extra for my steak if the service is decent. But as service declines, so does my tip, regardless of whether the waiter/waitress looks like they are starving.
I spent the first couple years of my working life bussing tables at a buffet. You want to talk about a miserable restaurant job... $2.85 per hour to scrape mashed potatoes off the underside of tables and get yelled at by senior citizens that took their purse to the bathroom for 20 minutes and returned to find their table cleaned off. I have no sympathy for people who choose to work a job they don't like and complain about the pay that is probably higher than most untrained workers make. I have a friend who works at an Applebees. She isn't rich but she can afford her house, her car, to support her son, and even to pay child support to her ex husband who makes more than her but works in the mines and was laid off when he got the agreement. She always has cash in her pocket from tips that she doesn't claim. She takes home somewhere in the mid 40's, probably a little more after those unclaimed cash tips.