My girlfriend works at the Hard Rock casino in Tampa. She gets payed 3.13/hr. How is that legal?

The Florida minimum wage is $7.31 per hour. Most employers of "tipped employees" may count tips actually received as wages under the Florida minimum wage.  Instead of paying $7.31 per hour, the employer must pay "tipped employees" an amount equal to the minimum wage ($7.31) minus the 2003 tip credit ($3.02), or a direct hourly wage of $4.29.  So, according to the state of Florida, she is entitled t the munificent sum of $4.29 per hour as opposed to $3.13.  But then again, perhaps the $3.13 is what she makes after deducting for Social Security and other deductions that are largely subtracted only from the earnings of lower paid people.   With a sales tax, which I believe in Tampa is 7%; it is hard to see how she can live on $7.31 an hour, much less having her employer get to reduce her pay, and their cost, by her projected tips.  In my state, Minnesota, service workers are entitled to the full minimum wage, and their tips.  If, in fact she is not receiving even the full $4.29 per hour, she has a claim that is worth pursuing, as there are serious repercussions to the employer, if the workers are willing to seek legal recourse. I have represented workers where the employer reduced the employee's pay by the cost to the restaurant to pay the merchant service fee on the credit cards with which tips were being paid.  It may not seem like much, but the 4% extra deducted from tips can open the employer to substantial payments to the employees, and the employer has to pay the employees' legal fees.  Servers are taken advantage of enough by their employers; the law does impose some limits, even if employees are afraid to avail them selves of those remedies.