My brother worked at P.F. Chang's for a summer while I was in high school, and he said it was easily the shittiest job out there, and tips were a big part of that. Ya see, they wouldn't let you keep the tips, you had to give them to your manager or be fired for "stealing." (How you steal something that was likely meant to be given specifically to you is beyond me, but there ya go.) They'd divvy the tips up equally, after the management took about a third of it for themselves.
Honestly, that's not the point of tips. If you're a good server, you should get better tips, you should keep your tips, and maybe log them with the place you're workin at, if such a thing is feasible. Good employees deserve to be paid more than bad ones, skimming off the top of their hard-earned money, and then insulting your good waiters by paying them as much as the fuckholes who don't give two shits about customer service is pure, unadulterated bullshit.
Also, tips shouldn't excuse your employers from paying at least minimum wage, ever. Minimum wage is minimum fucking wage, and it should be the absolute lowest you'll ever be paid, no matter the employer or industry you work for.