That's not "sleazy shit". That's how it works. If you got a $500 in tips one 8 hour shift and $20 the next 8 hour shift, you didn't work for $64.65/hr one night

That's not "sleazy shit". That's how it works. If you got a $500 in tips one 8 hour shift and $20 the next 8 hour shift, you didn't work for $64.65/hr one night and $4.65/h4 the next. No, you worked for an average of $22.15/hr over both days. It's supposed to be averaged over the pay period because the bookkeeping would be murder. And that includes the side work as well. Servers are either really fucking stupid or like to think we are. I understand it's a hustle and we're all trying to get our piece of the pie. But if you really, really, really hate being "underpaid" for specific hours you didn't collect enough in tips. Advocate to remove the tipping system entirely. Push to work under the normal minimum wage laws with no tipping. But no, that's a non-starter with servers. No, their solution is to keep increasing the "suggested minimum tip". It used to be 10%, now it's 20% and climbing. And fuck that noise, "If you can't tip, you can't afford to eat out". When you start asking someone to pay a quarter of the listed price in this weird hidden fee, maybe your entire industry needs an overhaul. End of the day, you need customers just as much as you need employees and being combative with the customers is not going to end well for anyone.