I don't have a loooot of exp in actual restaurant jobs. I've had 3 food service jobs. The first two (Sonic and Pizza Hut) I made 3.25 an hour and with the tips I made, made it such that I SOMETIMES hit minimum wage, but usually averaging $5 an hour, while also experiencing extreme abuse from management and customers.

I currently have a second job working in a restaurant owned privately by people I personally know. The environment is lax (though fast-paced and busy), and comfortable. They pay everyone a base $8 an hour, with $1.00 an hour raises every year, and divides the daily cash tips equally between everyone that works on a given day, and credit card tips get divided by hours worked per week. For me it comes out to roughly $11 an hour as a very part time person, and the full timers average about $16 an hour. And yet, the owners still currently make $1.5-2K (increasing on a yearly basis as their restaurant earns reputation and business) for their own checks, and the business is running great. You can run a food business and charge reasonable prices while still paying your employees a decent wage, providing benefits, and making a decent profit as an owner. The fact that so many people work for the compensation they do is nothing short of greed and bullshit by their management/corps.