"Workers are entitled to a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour if they do not receive tips and $2.13 per hour if they do, as well as overtime pay, if they work more than 40 hours per week; if tips and wages don't add up to $7.25 per hour, the employer is obligated to make up the difference. But many workers aren't aware that they're entitled to payment for all of the hours they work, let alone at what rate."
In short, most servers do not know that their employer must make certain they make at least $5.12 an hour in tips or pay them that on top of their minimum wage. The employer's failure to do that is wage theft.
Plus here's a tidbit of information: thirty years ago, when I started working in restaurants, the tip-earning minimum wage was $2.01. So in THIRTY years, your server's wage has only gone up $0.12! Twelve Cents.
Given inflation, that wage is actually the equivalent of working for free.