US tip workers also get full minimum wage. Tip workers who don't meet the minimum wage threshold on total earnings are compensated for the shortfall. The lower tip worker rate is a subsidy to business owners paid for by guilt tripping their customers.

> US tip workers also get full minimum wage. Tip workers who don't meet the minimum wage threshold on total earnings are compensated for the shortfall.

So they don’t get tips on top of the minimum wage.

Another way to see it is that the employer steals the first hours_worked*(minimum_wage-actual_wage) dollars from what the employee got in tips.

In states like Washington and I believe California, they get minimum wage at least before tips.

The expectation from the tipper is that the tips are unrelated to the wages.

You could tip 10k, and they'd still be paid at least minimum wage by the employer

Where I live in the US, mandatory minimum wage is $18.69/hr. Tips are on top of that. It has less to do with a living wage and more to do with the fact that the employees make less money with a mandatory 20% service charge than they do via tips.

What's a mandatory service charge even supposed to be? Are restaurant bills cost-plus contracts? Is there also a refrigeration charge, and an ingredients charge?

Yes, service is added as a 20% charge based on the total bill. This is to offset the absence of tipping. If you simply add 20% to menu prices, it has other adverse consequences that reduce employee income in practice.

To be fair that's a recent change in Ontario (2022).