@starry_solo is correct. By law, employers that take advantage of the Federal Tip Credit are supposed to make up the difference, but
in practice I have never seen this happen. I've worked in family run restaurants and global corporate brands -- none of them would've ever considered actually coming out of pocket to follow the law on that one. For the ones who even cared enough to keep up appearances that their employees were never falling below the minimum, they would do some creative bookkeeping. I.e., the server didn't claim enough in tips one week to meet minimum wage so the manager has them sign a form that will be submitted to corporate saying the employee made an error and they actually did earn enough, or the server is made to claim more than they earned the following week to make up for the shortage the previous week.
I have distinct memories of coworkers getting yelled at by management for not claiming enough in tips. It didn't matter how much you
actually earned so long as you claimed enough to clear the minimum. It was the kind of thing you could get fired for, so if you wanted to keep your job you made sure to clear the minimum wage in what you claimed, regardless if you actually earned that much. That's for the larger restaurants/chains who were concerned with things like record keeping and audits. Mostly though, that law is just completely ignored. The restaurant industry is as shady as they come.