[kmm]

In no state is the minimum wage the employee takes home lower than $7.25 an hour. The employer can pay them less only if the tips make up the difference, down to $2.13(!) an hour. Of course, most waiters and servers end up making quite a bit more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage

[pfranz]

This is not legal, but often if you're a waiter/waitress and report you're making less than minimum wage and want to get paid the difference they take that as you're not performing well enough and will fire you.

[zaksoup]

You’re right that employers must make up the difference by law, and I’m sure that many workers with tipped wages may take home more than their minimum wage equivalent, however that is not the norm, and the tipping wage has significantly worse outcomes than the standard minimum wage. Regardless, my point was that tipping cannot simply be boiled down to “I am being guilted into paying for a performance” and is significantly more nuanced for all involved.

Summary of relevant research: https://www.epi.org/blog/seven-facts-about-tipped-workers-an...

In particular, point 5 from the linked summary makes a strong case that a significant portion of workers making the tipped minimum wage do not receive the difference from their employers.