Sheldon wrote:
[snip preceding]
> Huh? Employers are not required to pay waitstaff minimum wage now.
> Many restaurants pay no wage at all yet highly experienced wait
> people line up at the door for those jobs...

Yes, it would be nice if industry practices rewarded those highly
experienced people enough so they wouldn't have to line up for another
job.

> a good wait person in many four
> star restaurants can easily earn six figures just from tips...

Yes, but there are only 1 or 2 four star restaurants in Los Angeles, a
county of more than 10 million people and thousands of eating places.

> a good drink server in Vegas can easly do better than many CEOs,
> and I mean from legitimate tips, not on their knees.

Yes, many small businesses fail and their CEOs make no money -- oh no,
that's not you meant -- well, in the casinos in Vegas and many of the
clubs, drink servers pool their tips so the good servers make no more
than the bad servers, and it certainly isn't as much as you seem to
think it is.

The less than minimum wage + tips system results in good compensation
for a few very skillful servers at high-priced eating and drinking
places. The trouble with stingy federal legislation is that it applies
to the vast majority who do not do so well. 99% or so of new
restaurant ventures fail in less than a year, but it's not because
paying $2.13/hour tipped them into red ink.

-aem