"Gary Woods" wrote in message

No argument at all there... the minimum wage is government set, and
especially in the current labor market employers generally don't pay
more than they have to.

:-)) Excuses excuses. Employers will use them all the time - just a
variation on a theme. When it was boom times the excuse was that if they
paid staff more it would eat into their competive advantage (and often that
was accompanied by "and cause jobs to be driven offshore". I know the
latter doesn't apply to the restaurant trade but I'll bet you've heard it.)

In some places a gratuity is added to the
bill up front.

In reality, that sounds very like the business is eefectively charging the
full cost of the service. That to me is a more effective way of paying the
staff what they should be paid for the work they do.