[mikeash]

The fact that servers are guaranteed minimum wage does not change "they live off tips" one bit. $7.25 isn't enough to reasonably live on. Like it or not, you're paying their rent with your tips. That doesn't mean you're obligated, but it does mean you have a strong influence over their financial well-being, even with minimum wage guarantees.

[jack-r-abbit]

I did acknowledge that the minimum wage sucks. But it sucks the same for all minimum wage jobs... the ones that don't even have the chance at getting tips. How much it costs to live is a much broader topic than this and should include all jobs that get low wages. I think tips fall into the same rough category as bonuses and commissions. People who get bonuses have to accept that they are not guaranteed. If you take a job expecting a bonus and you don't get it then you expected too much. You still get your guaranteed salary. Same with commission jobs. They usually have a base salary and then commissions are paid on top of that based on sales or what ever the metric is for that job. But if you don't perform very well one month and commissions are down... well... better luck next month. Bottom line, don't go in expecting the highest possible outcome. Expect the lowest. If you can't live off that then you take a risk taking the job. If you do end up higher than lowest possible outcome then your risk paid off.

[mikeash]

Bonuses and commissions can be really different. Sometimes they're just supplemental. Sometimes they're the real pay, and the salary is just a nominal token effort. For many jobs, expecting the lowest isn't realistic. You wouldn't take that job if you expected the lowest, because the lowest is unacceptably low and almost never actually happens.

Waiters get tipped. That's the expectation and the reality. Anyone who takes a waiter job not expecting to be tipped is deluded (assuming they don't work for one of the few places that ban it).