That's not how the tipped minimum wage works - it's even more arcane and convoluted than that! If you don't tip, then their wage is the local minimum, it's only reduced to where $2.13 plus their tips exceed the local minimum (so if you tip $2, and the local minimum wage is $15, they would make $13 at minimum wage (all the places with a $15 minimum I know of have banned this bullshit)) and as you pointed out, in 45/50 states that's been to some small or large extent rejected. If that sounds like it would make accounting really hard, you win uh... well we're out of candy so your prize is depression. Congrats!

It's a ridiculous system that should be abolished - but nearly all the criticism in these comments is treating it as though the exaggerated entitled behavior in the image is real - when nobody has actually behaved that way. If you think it's simply a meme that's fine, but it's presented as being an image from a real event, and that's what people need to be aware of.

And beside all that - why are we comfortable accepting AI content when it reinforces our positions, but reject it otherwise?