In my experience, kitchen staff are paid an hourly wage starting at minimum wage, while servers are paid only a couple of bucks an hour as tipped employees. Asking tipped employees to share their tips with non tipped employees is wrong. Personally, I would rather do away with tipping.
A restauranteur named Danny Meyer (author of Setting the Table ) was speaking to the Republican Governor’s Conference a few years back, and he was asked about what level of tip was appropriate. He replied that he would prefer to see the end of the tip system, and have the boss of each establishment decide who gets paid what.