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Actually not. In my state and others, when a business is designated as accepting tips, the workers can be paid less than minimum wage, while expecting that the tips they collect will make up for it.

So it’s really a way to extort good tips from customers, because it’s understood that our gratuities are the only way they can make minimum wage!

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In every state I am aware of employers are required to gross up to minimum wage if tips fall short. Yours is likely the same.

A friend in Southern California worked for a restaurant in Disneyland. Her employer calculated what they felt each waitstaff should have earned and had all of them pay up for sub-tips go cooks and busboys. Refusal to do so was grounds for termination. She had several days where the end of the shift had her net pay her employer due to non or low tipping that day.

That was grossing up for her. Illegal? Likely. "But they have laws against that" - low wage employees are easily taken advantage of. They often _need_ that job.

How long will a business employ a waiter that is tipped so badly?

We are talking about whether you as a customer should feel bad about not tipping. If customers don't tip that is not going to result in one waiter suddenly receiving much less in tips than others.

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