with regard to the thread about tipping, i saw this article that sums up what was said. to make a long story short, servers get paid about $2.25 (my diner pays $2.00) an hour. if their tips are THOUGHT (by whom?) to still bring their salaries below minimum wage the owner is required to pay the server $5.25, still well below the minimum wage which is $7.25.
since it's totally up to the owner to guesstimate how much the server gets in tips, guess who benefits by the guess.
http://gothamist.com/2011/08/30/brea...correct_ab.php
this is for NYC, but the dollars are the same all across the country. and please believe me, a dollar doesn't go as far in the metropolitan area as it does in some rural areas. so essentially, they are working for less buying power in every big city.
ideally, owners should be required to raise the salaries of workers, but then people would stop eating out even in pizza places. that's why you see tip jars. so it's left up to patrons to augment the salaries of wait-persons in order to help them to make an almost living wage. factory workers make the minimum wage here in the usa. families couldn't stay alive on that money and needed raises. that's why the jobs went overseas. many wait-people are single mothers supporting themselves during the time that their kids are in school. and now, men are waiting tables because they've lost their regular jobs and need to bring in salaries. should wait-people work for less?
waiters, waitresses, barbers, nail people, gas station attendants, etc. are mostly not the owners. they work for little money and need those tips. 10% has not been the normal tip in more than 10 years. during that time 15% was normal. during the last 2-3 years, if you can afford it, 20% was the accepted tip because of inflation, but even if you can't afford to tip 20%, any tip is better than no tip.