The big problem here is that you seem to think minimum wage is "enough". A person who has 6 years of experience and does a great job is worth no more than a kid on the first day of the job???? Nope. Minimum wage is reserved for brand-new employees still learning a job. After that, an employee is more valuable and should be paid more...right??? That's logical and sensible. Not in the US. You should be pissed off that a talented waitstaff isn't guaranteed at least $10/hour...not thinking they should earn the same as the busboy on his or her first day on the job.

I'm a huge believer in raising the minimum wage, i think anybody working full time 40-60 hours a week, should be making at least 10$/h and anybody who has worked for the same business for 2-5+ years should get mandatory raises to 11-15$ an hour, however i think this money should come from the boss not from the customers, the customers pays the boss with their order, then the boss pays the workers with his profit i would rather the food be more expensive than be expected to pay a tip everytime, but ultimately i would rather see the CEO of mcdonalds, dennys, the olive garden, or whatever resteraunt you are at to take a smaller salary/bonus at the end of the year so that he can pay his employees a bigger minimum wage, and pay it in full and not expect them to beg for tips many good waiters/waitresses can make well over the minimum wage because they are good at earning tips, although i think a lot of them deserve it i think some workers are disingenuous when they claim they need the tips yet they already make a lot in tips(not every table needs to tip, if half the tables tip and they tip well enough so you are making well over minimum wage, you should cut people slack when they don't tip) and I've heard other stories where waiters/waitresses will fail to report tips correctly on their taxes, and although this is probably a small amount of workers, it would be much more easily solved by making 100% of their income come from the manager, and only getting tipped a few times per night/week if the customer thinks they really deserved it/went the extra mile i don't want to abolish tips, anybody in the service industry deserves to be tipped if they did a fantastic job, i just want to shift the burden of livelihood from the customer to the manager where it belongs and for anybody thinking "i went to college, and i don't make 15$/h" i think all steps on the corporate ladder should be given a pay increase, except for the top management/CEO's who are making 350-1000's of times more income than the people who keep them in business capitalism is great, and people deserve to live a life of luxury and work their way to the top/1%, but i think that top shouldn't be so grossly out of proportion