The wages of a server are a gamble. Although restaurants are supposed to make up for a server's wages when they fall below minimum wage, they often don't. Often, customers are unaware of what servers are even paid (a measly 2.13 an hour here in Mississippi). Customers need to be informed of a servers wages and the opening and closing duties that he or she must do before and after he or she has tables to wait on.
Not all customers care about the people who serve them, though. Let's please consider either making tipping mandatory or raising the server's wage to the regular minimum wage.