Should an employer be able to deduct tips against the employee's minimum wage?

[John Dibble]

Je-sus! The minimum wage for restaurant employees is $2.13!!!???

For someone who works tables or the bars, yes, but with tips they tend to make more than a fast food worker who is likely paid at or above the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hours. Many states also have their own minimum wage for this category - http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm.

[John Dibble]

No, because tipping should be banned and all employees should be either paid in wages or salaried. And to compensate for the loss of tip income, we need to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, if not $12 an hour.

How exactly are you going to ban tipping? If I leave some money on the table and have left the place, what do you think is going to happen to it?