The article is a little confusing. I think what is being said is that because you get tips I don't have to pay you the minimum wage. So in affect because of the tips the business owner makes out because they can pay you less.
As far as the employer never saw the tips, things have changed since you were getting tips. Now what happens Is that the employer assumes you made at least 10% of your gross sales and the they tax you on that amount.
To be more clear if you get bad service and do not leave a tip, the waiter/waitress actually is paying more taxes and thus lost money on that table.
I would if I got really bad service, notify the manager, but would still leave a small tip to offset the automatic addition that they get. Then you most likely would get comp'ed and receive a free meal or desert.
In the restaurant I worked, at the end of the night you went to the office to "tip out". They make you give a certain % of your food SALES towards bus-boys, hostesses, etc.
I see the reason behind the practice. If a bus-boy or hostess does a good job they indeed do affect a server's tips. The issue is, the customer is not tipping the bus-boy/hostess. They are tipping the server - period.
What has happened is restaurants are able to pay the non-tipped employees less based on the server's tips. Instead of a server voluntarily sharing some of their tips with the help that does indeed HELP, you have it mandatory by management. The management collects a % from each server then equally distributes it between the various help.
It is socialist to the core.
No, what is being said is not because you get tips I don't have to pay you the minimum wage. What is being said is because we have a federal government that will allow businesses to financially benefit from their customer's tips, I can pay you less and take away most of the financial benefits customers are attempting to bestow on you. You see the problem isn't that the public is tipping employees, the problem is that our corrupt federal government has passed a bill which allows businesses to fraudulently benefit from money not belonging to them, tips. The worst part about the tip credit bill is, if business need additional income they have every right and ability to simply charge more for their services. Of course fraud is much more lucrative. Our government has passed a bill which allows business owners a ability to fraudulently financially benefit from the tips our public presents their employees even though businesses could simply charge more for their services and increase their own profits legally.