An Unfair System
Not many people are aware that workers in the service industry aren’t paid in the same way as those with jobs in other industries. They receive a “tipped minimum wage,” which amounts to a fraction of the federal minimum wage. Tips are designed to cover the rest of a server’s income, but there is no guarantee that they will.
This leaves servers like Tommy beholden to the whims of their paying customers, and it’s an unfair system. But there are some who are beginning to challenge it.