Some say that collecting tips is the main source of income for waiters and waitresses.

About 15 percent of the nation’s 2.4 million waiters and waitresses live in poverty and are less likely to receive paid sick leaves or health benefits. These rates are only increasing.

Nearly one in 10 workers in America are in the restaurant industry.

Some restaurants have eliminated tipping altogether, and some will adjust salaries to meet minimum wage if someone does not receive enough tips to cover the gap between their earnings and minimum wage.

Tips can significantly boost a server’s income, but some people may tip generously and others may never tip at all.

Seven states require employers to pay tipped workers the state minimum wage, 24 states require employers to pay above the tipped minimum wage, and 19 states let employers pay the federal tipped minimum wage.

At Applebee’s, for instance, if customers do not tip, the wait staff still has to pay 2.1 percent of their sales.

This 2.1 percent goes to the employees that are not on the wait staff, such as the hostess and bartender.

Mrs. Felice Durbin, manager of the Applebee’s in Grand Blanc, wishes that people knew more about tipping.

“I feel a lot of people do not realize that they (the wait staff) make less than minimum wage. They make $3.15 an hour, and a lot of people do not realize that they make up their wage in tips,” Durbin said.

Applebee’s is not the only restaurant that does this.

“It makes it hard because if they (the wait staff) don’t get tips at all, they pay to work, in essence,” Durbin said. “I wish that they did get paid more, maybe even $5 or $6 an hour would really help. Then they would get some kind of compensation.”