What is your solution to this?

wages that keep up with inflation,,,,

And have you noticed who works at most of these jobs? Immigrants and illegal aliens. Its the law of supply and demand, if nobody is willing to do a job then the employer has to pay whatever it takes to get the job done or shut down. Its up to the people who take the job to control what they make, not the government. Some jobs that used to be good paying like construction and meat packing have now become low paying jobs do to the type of people willing to do these jobs. Inflation means the price of everything goes up keeping these "poor" people "poor". That's just the way it is. But also any money that people have saved is worth less as inflation rises putting many retired people worse off. And the more people make, the more the Government collects in tax, but they also end up paying more for everything. People on welfare and social security need more money to survive. Company's pass the cost on to customers,or find more efficient ways to do things, or have work done in other countries, much of what will hurt the work force. Restaurants already expect you to tip the waitress as part of their wage so I say we just take that 4% or whatever surcharge off the tip. Most waitress are over rated for what they do, and make anyway. My food being good is more important to me than the service when I go out to eat, so how about some of those selfish waitresses sharing some of their tips with the cooks and other staff.

to answer the question, most waitstaff rely on tips for their income, their wage can be significantly lower (as low as 2.10 ) with the rest expected to be made up in tips

unlike the cooks, who already get the regular wage, without expecting to have to make it up elsewhere

and wages that go down with deflation?

indeed

indeed