Keep in mind that in both US and Canada there's a different (and lower) minimum wage for 'tipped workers'.
US Federal law states minimum wage is only $2.13/hr for someone that makes $30/month in tips (instead of normal minimum $7.25) [1]. If they don't make $30 in tips the employer must make up the difference.
At 30 hours/week (and 4.3 weeks/month), $30/month works out to $0.23/hr, so the effective minimum wage is still only $2.36/hr.
Some states are quite a bit higher (eg Hawaii is $7/hr), and in some (eg, Alaska, California) the minimum wage is the same regardless of tips.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_Stat...
You are grossly misrepresenting the situation and what your own link says. If wages + tips don't equal the normal minimum wage of $7.25, the employer is required to make up the difference.
They get, at worst, normal minimum wage.
Ack, sorry, I totally missed that highly important bit! Unfortunately too late to delete.
Other countries have solved the problem. Also there's a lot of other instances where US impossible to crack problem is solved... Not meaning to bash, but it seems evident. Other cultures just aren't so much into cut-throat competition, it's just not that fun.
Neither of these seem easier than "convince the public to toss in a few extra dollars when they use a lowly paid service".
I see "make sure that all working people are paid fairly" as a very difficult problem, and tipping as a moderately effective hack that's easier to implement than the cleaner fix of higher minimum wage of basic income.