And the cleaning lady can't?
Not legally. What Jack is saying, precisely, is that in much of America, minimum wage is lower for tipped employees than for general workers.
That's fucked up.
QV's link explains more. There's a minimum wage debate at the federal level now, because the minimum wage is in no way a liveable wage. Part of that debate is a discussion over whether workers with disabilities should be exempt from the minimum wage.
^Is that from the awful McDonald's "budget planning" fiasco?
Not that this makes it OK, but I feel the need to point out that the issue with workers with disabilities is that they are presumed to be getting a guaranteed monthly check FOR that disability; also that there's a cap on hours one can work and income one can make and still receive disability benefits. It's not
just an issue of taking advantage of people who can't fight back (it's that too, but, well, welcome to modern capitalism).
That disability is not enough to live on is taken about as well into account as minimum wage not being enough to live on.