Summary: This spotlight details the racist history of tipping, federal and state policy governing tipped work, and the experience of tipped workers in the economy—both nationwide and in the South. Across the country, tipped workers are more likely to be people of color, women, women of color, or single parents, and are disproportionately born outside…
Read the second paragraph of OP’s article. Your arguments do not remotely refute this.
ETA: I agree that the wording could be better, to make it less likely anyone would mistake the claim the way you have.
I cannot find a single claim of this slavery aspect that doesn’t trace back to Saru Jayaraman as a source.
They are a fair wage activist. They have an agenda is getting people to believe tipping is evil. They have no credentials as a historian of any kind.
It’s really quite ridiculous how much people want to believe things and me having doubts makes them see me as the fool.