... and Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada (and they get health insurance), Oregon, and Washington. There are also several states where the wage is higher than the $2 or so, but lower than the state minimum - more like $4-7.

In Canada, our minimum wages are generally higher, although we do have small differences between tipped and non tipped. The lowest any server is making in Canada is $8.90 / hour. In Ontario where I live, our servers get paid $9.55 per hour. They also get their tips on top of that, meaning many of our servers are actually very well compensated. I just don't buy into the 'they rely on tips to live' argument here, when, without a single $ of tips, they are making just $58 (per 40 hour work week) than a completely untipped employee at Walmart, for example.

As a Brit, living in North America, I can tell you that I now deduct percentage points from what I would have tipped if they write in tip amounts like above, circle the 'tips not included' part, or otherwise assume I am going to stiff them (because of my accent). I also tell them why their tip is now lower than they may consider acceptable, that is, on account of their rudeness, in the hope that they stop doing it (one hapless server has done the same thing to me three times now - I do wonder when she will cotton on).