It is the federal government that counts tips as part of the minimum wage. The "tipped job" minimum wage, although lower, is still the minimum. The employer has to pay that no matter what.
This really still depends on where you work tho. Tips may be horrible in some low end joints but a waiter in an up scale restaurant will make so much on tips, the minimum wage check he gets is a pittance compared to what he takes home.
My sister and all 4 of her daughters have worked in server world. My wife lived around about 20-30 of them when she ran the country club. The wait staff manager refused to be put on the executive payroll because she picked up more tips as a part time, fill in server, than managers made. There were some full time servers who made as much as the general manager in season.
