I’m a bartender. Half my paycheck is tips (and still isn’t enough to live in the area, but that’s another issue). There shouldn’t be a tipped minimum wage. Period. Tips should be optional, not a way for employers to make customers pay their employees’ wages.

Long gone are the days when you made $7.25 an hour on your paycheck and took home hundreds in cash per night. People are tipping less, eating out less, and carrying less cash. Paying everyone a livable wage and eliminating the need to tip would help everyone, except the owner class.