You are talking about two different things . The job they took does not pay them enough . The job includes getting tipped . The employer doesn ' t pay them enough , but the job does . So your original point , They knew it wouldn ' t pay them enough so how can you take them seriously is blatantly fallacious . They knew it would pay them enough because small wage tips good income is exactly what they knowingly signed up for . They should assume that they will have no more than that coming in . That ' s a ridiculous assumption , when practically every restaurant across America has a tipping system whereby servers make money well above what is in their contracts . Depending on the kindness of strangers or some vague societal norm is not a good plan . It ' s not vague . You threw that word in there just to strengthen your argument but it doesn ' t fit . There is nobody in America who is unaware of the ~ 15 % for good service rule of thumb , even if some people refuse to participate in it . It ' s known by everyone , and followed by almost everyone , which is why the system stays how it is and hasn ' t needed to be rebooted differently due to people not following it . And as I always say to people who argue against the tipping system , if tipping stopped and employers had to make up for it in employee wages , your food would just be 15 % more expensive anyway . At least with a tipping system you have the option of not tipping the server if they happen to give you shitty service .