>In the US, employees must still be paid minimum wage. Depending on the state, an employer may count tips toward this amount. If an employee reports $0 in tips, the employer must pay them $7.25/hr. While I would like to believe that what you say is true, I find it hard to be true.

Sure this is technically correct according to the way the law is written but it ignores the reality which is that a large group of criminals ignore the law on a daily basis and face no consequences. Wage theft is MASSIVE and widespread across America especially for low wage workers, who often rely on tips (but it even effects high wage workers too!). More money is stolen in the US through wage theft than all other methods combined. Business owners (especially small business owners) steal from their employees by not paying them when they quit (oh I guess we just lost your last paycheck, sorry, we'll get it to you soon I promise), stealing tips, intimidating employees into not reporting wages under the minimum, refusing to pay legally mandated overtime or refusing to allow legally required breaks or a variety of other ways owners can use their power to illegally extract unpaid labor from their employees.

The solution is to abolish tips and require business owners pay their workers fair wages, or help the workers bargain collectively to ensure this themselves.