To Improve Personal Service

I just found out what tips, as in the amount of money you tip a restaurant server, stands for.  It means "To improve personal service."  When I heard that I thought that made sense.  A tip is a reward for good service.  However, with hourly wages so low for restaurant servers, most servers rely on tips just to make a minimum wage.  A friend of mine was telling me that her granddaughter works at a popular seafood restaurant for $2.75 per hour.  She receives this under the table, so there are no taxes.  In addition she makes about $10-$15 an hour in tips, which she has to share with the bus boys.   That's hardly much of a living.

Europe has always included the tip in the cost of the meal.  One could argue that it no longer is a reward for good service, but just part of the cost of the meal.  This has been tried by some American chain restaurants, but so far it has not had success.  It seems to me that there must be better oversight over this group of people, most of whom work very hard, and make very little.

Years ago we used to go to Lawry's prime rib restaurant, in Los Angeles.  The wait staff there bought and owned their stations.  They were that valuable.  At the time, probably 30 years ago, a retiring waitress could sell her station for $50,000, so you can only imagine that waitresses made a very good living at Lawry's.  There are other high end restaurants, where servers make a great living, but there are too many coffee shops where food is cheap and the customers even cheaper.  Something should be done to make sure that the hard working men and women in this industry make a living wage.

By the way, I think Uber is on the right track.  The price of a ride includes tax and tip.  No money changes hands with the driver.  I have talked to dozens of Uber drivers and they are all happy with their job and the pay.  The restaurant industry might want to take a look at this.