Unfortunately I think the reality is that as long as people are tipping well, there is little motivation on any party (except the customer) to rework compensation in the food service industry

The people who actually have the power to change this are the companies, as businesses in the US at least have a disproportionate buying power of democracy. Unless what you do hurts a business’ bottom line, it won’t rework any system. You either have to adjust the politics so that businesses have less sway, or you just end up making sure someone who’s already not getting paid enough gets paid even less. The company has no incentive to pay them more. A living wage has to be legislated