Cheers. Waitstaff are mostly women, and very many WOC today, and live in/near poverty. There are waitstaff that make good livings at expensive restaurants, but (spoiler alert!) they are almost all white men.

By law a restaurant is supposed to pay the waistaff the difference between the sub-minimum tipped wage and minimum wage.

I worked in a Denny's as first a dishwasher then a waiter about 40 years ago. I guarantee that NONE of the waitstaff knew about that law. I only learned about it last week!