[blueash]

You are a server at Bonefish. Under the law now you are paid $4.65 from your employer and whatever you get in tips. The government assumes you get the $3.02 in tips to bring you up to 7.65. (Note that if you do not get $3.02/hr in tips I believe there is an obligation for the employer to pay you more to make up the difference.. whether the employer really does that, I don't know.). But you work at Bonefish so in fact you average $10.00/hr in tips making your total hourly income $14.65. Under the proposal you still will get $10/hr in tips but the employer will only pay you $2.13 so your income drops to $12.13. Now the restaurant has cut their employee cost in half!
If on a really slow night you only make $4.00/hr in tips then your total for that night is only 6.13/hr and the employer must make up the difference to $9.91. If you almost always can get away with paying 2.13/hr which saves you 2.52/hr and rarely have to cover shortages then you make a lot more money. If on the other hand you own a waffle house, then you stay with 4.65/hr so you aren't at risk for the higher make-up cost. The irony here is the expensive diner owner ends up paying less than half to hire a server (2.13/hr) compared to the owner of the Waffle House ( 4.65/hr).
IMHO we ought to encourage a system where all employers should pay a living wage and not make the customers' tips the essential component of income. For those who travel, you recognize that in Europe tipping is only loose change. In that way if you were a server at a more expensive restaurant the ownership would pay you more in salary to get a better quality employee, just like any other business. And that extra cost for a higher paid server would be passed on to the patron as a higher price meal. But you see, you're already paying the higher price because you add the tip to the meal charge. Raise the meal charge 18% and give it all to the wait staff. Stop encouraging servers to lie on their taxes.