Restaurants have a weird legal workaround for minimum wage laws thanks to tipping. Effectively here's how it works: the wait staff gets paid the standard minimum wage only if they fail to acquire enough tips to reach that minimum wage.
The rub is that there is usually very little middle ground; restaurants are usually either empty or busy. This means that the minimum wage barrier is usually broken by a significant margin.
Generally, the only people not reaching leagues above minimum wage due to tips are people so bad they don't deserve their job, or are in a restaurant/area so bad that nobody tips period.
Its why every attempt to remove the tipping culture and laws is met with incredible hate from the wait staff themselves, because they usually make fucking bank off it.
Restaurants have a weird legal workaround for minimum wage laws thanks to tipping. Effectively here's how it works: the wait staff gets paid the standard minimum wage only if they fail to acquire enough tips to reach that minimum wage.
The rub is that there is usually very little middle ground; restaurants are usually either empty or busy. This means that the minimum wage barrier is usually broken by a significant margin.
Generally, the only people not reaching leagues above minimum wage due to tips are people so bad they don't deserve their job, or are in a restaurant/area so bad that nobody tips period.
Its why every attempt to remove the tipping culture and laws is met with incredible hate from the wait staff themselves, because they usually make fucking bank off it.